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By LOU HATTER
Rappahannock N«wt SUIT Writer
They said it couldn’t be done. Page County couldn’t beat Rappahannock for a third time in one season — the fourth if the Christmas tournament counts.
The pundits were wrong.
Though Rappahannock dominated their Valley rivals through the first quarter and most of the second in their semi-final round matchup last Thursday night, Page failed to lose the spark which has kept them plugging along this season.
The Valley Panthers’ determination showed in the second half, as they pulled ahead of Rappahannock — and stayed in front as the Panthers fought foul trouble in the third quarter.
Coach Gary Leake pointed to that early foul trouble with two of his most dependable starters, Francisco Vicente and Paul Hitt, as major problems which forced adjustments in Rappahannock’s game plan.
The aggressive defensive play under the boards was nowhere to be seen in the second half, but when Vicente picked up his third foul early in the third quarter, Coach Leake pulled the senior exchange student from Spain. That left the Panthers without their most potent rebounding asset.
Hitt, meanwhile, led the Panther offense with 14 points, all scored in the first half. He was hit with his third foul with less than two minutes gone in the third period, and rode the bench for much of the second half. Hitt had been consistently deadly with his outside shot, and his lossaleft Rappahannock without a strong offensive leader.
But even without Hitt and Vicente, the Panthers played flat through the third quarter. They let a five point lead dissipate, and Page took the lead, 44-42, with one second left on the clock.
Though the scoring was fairly even through the first four minutes of the final quarter, without Vicente and Hitt the Panthers were never able to put together a consistent offensive attack to get back the lead. They pulled to within two points with just over four minutes left, but then Page made two free throws and a three-pointer from outside and the game was out of reach.
In addition to the foul trouble, Coach Leake blamed his team’s poor free throw average. In the quarterfinal game against Strasburg, the Panthers, managed 80 percent from the charity stripe. Against Page, that average slipped to 40 percent, and was even lower in the second half. “If we’d done that tonight it would have been a good game.
“The little things killed us,” the coach added.
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