AM
Narrows qualifies for regionals
Narrows (72) Vs. Covington (61)
Feb 20, 2014
By TROY SARVER
Roanoke Times
ELLISTON, Va. — Experience can sometimes pay off and that's what happened for Narrows on Thursday night.
Led by a quartet of seniors, the Green Wave boys led throughout and held off several Covington rallies to clinch a spot in next week's regionals with a 72-61 win in the Conference 45 semifinals over the Cougars.
The Green Wave also advanced to the conference final where they will take on top-seeded Radford tonight. The Bobcats pulled away in the fourth quarter to top Auburn 54-39 in the opener at Eastern Montgomery High School.
Narrows (11-10) jumped out to an early 7-3 lead, but while it never lost the lead, the margin never grew greater than six points until right before the half.
Behind 34-29 Covington was holding for the last shot of the half when Narrows senior Chandler Burton stole a Cougar pass at midcourt and raced to slam home a two-pointer right at the halftime buzzer.
"That one got us fired up," said Burton of his buzzer beating slam. "When I got it I looked up at the clock and tried to get up the court as fast as I could."
Burton's coach Chris Gautier said the dunk gave his team needed momentum going into the second half.
"It was huge from a momentum standpoint. That took us into intermission with our heads held high," said Gautier. "The third quarter has been a downfall for us all season and that boosted our confidence."
The Cougars (15-10) did rally in the second half cutting the lead to 50-48 at the end of the third period, but every time the Cougars were in position to grab the lead, they could not knock down a go-ahead shot.
"It was a bad shooting night for us. I thought the stage was a little big for some of our kids and that translated into our shooting," said Covington head coach Garland Jefferson.
Leading 65-61 going into the final two minutes Narrows put the game on ice from the foul line as they went 5-for-6 in the stretch, which included Burton going a perfect 4-for-4.
Burton led the Green Wave with 26 points. Fellow seniors Gavin Givens, Rodney Perdue and Austin Lively combined to contribute 31 points in the win.
"We've been grinding at it for a couple of years. The seniors knew this would be their last hurrah, and they showed some great leadership. I give them credit," said Gautier.
Those seniors will move on to take on Radford. The Bobcats (21-2) had trouble pulling away from Auburn for the first three quarters as the Eagles were as close as 32-24 late in the third, but the Bobcats went on a 13-4 run to start the fourth that put the game away.
It was the third matchup of the season between the Three Rivers District foes and Bobcat head coach Rick Cormany believed that factored into how competitive the game was.
"We couldn't get up and down offensively. They made it tough on us to score, but that's what happens when you play somebody three times. Hats off to them," said Cormany.
The Bobcats' biggest first half lead was 23-10 midway through the second, but Auburn answered quickly with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to five. Isaiah Phillips, however, responded with the half's final three points including a layup at the buzzer to put Radford ahead 26-18 at the break.
Radford was led by Phillips with 17 points and Nate Jones who finished with 15.
Auburn's Jake Shelburne had a game-high 22 points for the Eagles who finished their season at 11-13.

NARROWS (11-10)
Burton 9 7-9 26, Hall 3 0-0 7, Lively 9 1-4 19, Givens 1 3-4 5, Spangler 3 0-0 6, Perdue 3 1-4 7, Blaker 0 2-2 2. 28 14-23 72.
COVINGTON (15-10)
Carter 2 0-2 5, Miller 5 4-5 17, Hunter 8 3-6 20, Matthews 4 5-8 13, Howard 1 0-0 2, Roldan 1 2-2 4. Totals 21 14-23 61.
Narrows...........17 19 14 22 — 72
Covington.........11 18 19 13 _ 61
3-point-goals - Narrows 2 (Burton, Hall), Covington 5 (Miller 3, Carter, Hunter). Total fouls - Narrows 16, Covington 18. Fouled out - Roldan.

Nightly Roundup
Game Scoreboard
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT SCORE
Narrows 17 19 14 22 0 72
Covington 11 18 19 13 0 61
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