University of Virginia Library

Petersburg Captures
Virginia AAA Crown

By BILL BERNO

Superstars flopped and
unknowns came on to star in
the three VHSL championship
games played in U-Hall
Saturday.

Moses Malone, everyone's
focus of attention, played
against an opposing center his
own size and "Mo" had
problems. But his Petersburg
teammates took up the slack
and carried The Wave to a
59-51 win.

Culpeper's leading scorer,
Harold Jones, lived up to all
expectations as he scored 31
points to lead the Blue Devils
to an exciting 82-78 victory
over Kennedy of Suffolk.

Luray star Jim Arrington
scored 24 points, but West
Point's Duke Thorpe popped in
32 as the Pointers won, 70-63.
Luray and West Point each
finished with 25-2 records.

In the AAA final, Halifax
County started 6-11 Calvin
Crews, who scored only two
points but held Malone far
below his 29.6 season scoring
average. At times, the
Petersburg center looked
totally confused and frustrated
by the physical defense of
Crews.

Scoring star of the game
was Halifax's guard Jerry
Brooks, who gunned in 26
points. After a dismal first half,
Brooks caught fire in the third
quarter and kept Halifax in the
game. Petersburg was led by
smooth 6-7 forward Mike
Howard and 5-8 sparkplug Stan
Taylor with 14 points apiece.
Taylor iced the game with
three dazzling drives in the
closing minutes.

State AA champion
Culpeper pulled out the closest
game of the day when David
Mack hit four free throws in
the final seconds of play.
Randell White led Kennedy
with 29 points, while Jones 31
and Sonny Bowles' 21 points
were high for Culpeper.

Luray fell victim to the
onslaught of West Point's
Thorpe, a 6-5 senior center
who was the dominant force in
the game. Thorpe scored on 14
of 20 shots and grabbed a
game-high 21 rebounds.