varsity.roanoke.com

Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Northside's Adam Burroughs drives the ball against Brunswick defenders Antawn Valentine (left) and Casey Walker during Tuesday's VHSL Group AA semifinal game in Richmond.

Brunswick coach Bryant Stith, UVa's all-time leading scorer, directs his team during Tuesday's game.

Northside fans support the Vikings at the Siegel Center in Richmond on Tuesday.

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RICHMOND -- There will be no all-Roanoke Valley final in Group AA Division 3.

A third Northside-Cave Spring classic is going to have to wait for another year. The Vikings' hopes ended Tuesday under a barrage of Brunswick foul shots and too much Casey Walker. The Bulldogs will return to the state title game Saturday after stopping the Vikings 67-58.

Brunswick, a three-time state champ, thus earns its rematch with current defending champion Cave Spring.

Northside was so close. The Vikings were down one with 3:06 remaining before the Bulldogs made 10 of their last 13 fouls shots as the Vikings went cold from the floor down the stretch.

Afterwards, somebody mentioned to Northside coach Billy Pope that he seemed to be holding up well after the disappointment.

"I'm a good faker," he said. "My heart is breaking."

Brunswick coach Bryant Stith knows how he feels. Three times previously prior to Tuesday, the Bulldogs (24-3) had been to the VHSL final four, losing each time, the last two years in the championship.

"Northside played a tremendous game," Stith said. "It was a fun game to be a part of."

Nobody had any more fun than Walker, a 6-foot-3 senior who was the only participant in this occasionally furiously paced game who played all 32 minutes. Walker made a AA tournament record 16 foul shots in 19 attempts en route to a game and career high 37 points. Walker made his last six free throws in the final 47 seconds as the Bulldogs were closing things out.

"With a lack of players, we struggled to score in the first half," Walker said. "Coach talked all year about becoming a leader. I was trying to show leadership and get us back to the state championship."

The Bulldogs were lacking two starters, one an academic casualty and the other, Brandan Stith, the coach's son, had a badly bruised knee.

Walker slowed down in the second half after scoring 26 in the first half, making only one of his five shots from the floor after making 8 of 19 in before the break. He didn't miss any of his eight foul shots after the break, though.

"He's about as good as we've played against," Pope said. " ... He was a load. We're were trying everything."

Trey Smith, who paced the Vikings with 22 points, shared some of the defensive duties on Walker.

"He's long and pretty hard to guard," Smith said. "He has a great shot. I kept a hand up on him but he still gets it off good."

Smith carried the Vikings (24-3) offensively for much of the night, nailing three of seven shots from long range and going 7-for-17 overall. He also sank five of eight foul shots as his team was 13-for-24.

Stevan Richie had 13 points and eight rebounds but Northside nevertheless struggled on the attack, in the second half especially when the team shot only 21.9 percent. Northside, which had a school-record 18-game winning streak severed, was an uncharacteristic 20 of 60 (33.3 percent) from the floor. The Vikes were also outrebounded 45-35 with walker grabbing 10 of them.

"A lot of our problem was offense," Pope said. "I give Brunswick credit for that."

Adam Burroughs was under his average with seven points and Neil Brown was held to five points, more than five under his average, after being limited most of the evening by foul trouble before finally fouling out with 1:12 left.

"It's obviously big but that's just part of the game," Pope said. "We're not making an excuse about it, but absolutely it was big."

Northside got off to the sort of brisk start that it wanted to, taking a 13-5 lead when Smith stroked a triple with 2:42 left in the first quarter. Brunswick kept coming with outstanding quickness and an effective press that ultimately led to 17 Vikings turnovers by the end.

Speaking of, Brunswick had an awful 17 turnovers in the first half alone and finished with 25.

"We had two sophomores playing guard and Northside played good pressure defense," Walker said. "Halftime, Coach told 'em they weren't sophomores any more, they had to grow up. They stopped rushing after that."

Brunswick made its living on defense all year, playing a number of games that stayed in the 40's and 50's. They were a different team at state.

"We had the impressions that they were going to come out with a lot of points," said Stith, the all-time leading scorer for the University of Virginia and a former NBA player.

"We had a decision to make whether we were going to match their intensity or we were going to play back and try to control the tempo. We made the decision that we were going to play up-tempo with them."

BRUNSWICK (24-3)

Moore 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 3-5 2-6 8, C. Walker 9-24 16-19 37, M. Walker 2-4 0-1 4, Dugger 1-3 4-5 6 Valentine 1-1 1-1 3, Green 3-7 0-2 7, Key 0-0 0-0 0, Rice 1-1 0-2 2. Totals 20-45 22-36 67

NORTHSIDE (24-3)

Burroughs 3-11 0-0 7, Thornburg 0-2 0-0 0, Smith 7-17 5-8 22, Brown 2-6 1-2 5, Richie 5-9 3-7 13, Palmieri 2-8 3-6 7, Curry 0-0 0-0 0, Gilliard 0-3 0-0 0, Arnold 1-3 0-0 3, Keith 0-1 1-1 1. Totals 20-60 13-24 58

Brunswick 14 16 15 22--67

Northside 17 19 11 11--58

3-point goals -- Brunswick 4-14 (C. Walker 3-12, Green 1-1, Jones 0-1, Northside 5-20 (Smith 3-7, Burroughs 1-5, Arnold 1-1, Thornburg 0-2, Palmieri 0-3, Gilliard 0-2. Fouls -- Brunswick 18, Northside 24. Fouled out -- Brown. Rebounds-- Brunswick 45 (Dugger 12), Northside 35 (Richie 8). Assists -- Brunswick 11 (Jones 6), Northside 17 (Palmieri 4).