THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503250472
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Forget ``Big Country.'' From now on, call him Bryant ``Quick Hands'' Reeves. And call the Oklahoma State basketball team one victory away from the Final Four.
Both developments were the result of the final play of OSU's dramatic 71-66 victory over Wake Forest Friday night in the NCAA East Regionals before 19,689 fans at Byrne Arena.
The Cowboys led the Demon Deacons 69-66 with 20.4 seconds remaining. Wake Forest guard Randolph Childress, ACC tournament MVP, dribbled beyond the top of the key, a wary eye trained on the converging Reeves and fellow Cowpoke Andre Owens.
As the clock ground down to just 7.8 seconds and Childress looked for an opening, the 7-foot-1, 290-pound Reeves suddenly stuck out his big paw and flicked the ball away from the started Demon Deacon guard.
Thus began the shortest tennis match in recorded history, 3.3 seconds in which Owens said ``the ball hit my hand, then off my leg, off (Reeves') leg, then into my hands, like a tennis thing.''
Owens finally gained control and fired a pass to Terry Collins for a dunk that propelled the Cowboys into Sunday's regional final against the winner of the Massachusetts-Tulsa contest.
``I just lost the ball, there's no more I can say about it,'' Childress said. ``I just lost it.''
The play actually concluded what might have been the most exasperating eight minutes of Childress's career. After dribbling between his legs and converting a three-point play to give Wake a 56-50 lead with 8:01 to go, Childress made a month's worth of mistakes for a player of his pedigree.
Including the turnover that sealed Wake Forest's fate, Childress missed all four shots he attempted, committed two other turnovers, and was whistled for two personal fouls. Almost all of that occurred with Oklahoma State's Owens breathing down his neck.
Childress, however, went to great lengths to say he wasn't sure how great an impact Owens had.
``I don't know if he did anything differently on defense from the first half,'' said Childress, who led the Demon Deacons with 22 points, but made just 6 of 16 shots, 3 of 11 from 3-point range. ``He was more aggressive, and when I got by him, I had another guy to go around. I don't want to say too much. . . . He did a great job on me.''
The anticipated matchup between Reeves and Wake center Tim Duncan resulted in a stalemate. Reeves outscored Duncan, 15-12. But Duncan grabbed 22 rebounds, a Byrne Arena East Regional record and 13 more than his beefy competitor.
Duncan also blocked eight shots, causing Reeves to list him as ``one of the best one or two defensive centers I've ever played.''
But the OSU defense was outstanding in keeping the ball out of Duncan's hands at the offensive end. With Childress uncommonly cool, it was left to reserve Rusty LaRue to keep the Demon Deacons in the game.
LaRue, the starting quarterback on Wake's football team, did just that by hitting 5 of 7 3-point shots for a career-high 17 points. That helped offset the game-high 23 points scored by OSU's Randy Rutherford.
Wake held several six-point leads in the second half, but each time OSU countered with a 3-point shot to stay close.
Jason Skaer hit two of them, including one from the top of the key that clanked off the square and through the net.
``Maybe I should have known at that point that it wasn't going to be our night,'' Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said.
LaRue, who Odom said ``seized the day,'' wouldn't allow him to take that negative approach. His corner trey with 23.1 seconds left, a shot that came after he fumbled a pass from Childress, kept Wake (26-6) in position to knot the game had Reeves not stolen the ball - and the moment. ILLUSTRATION: Associated Press color photo
Oklahoma State's Andre Owens and Bryant Reeves converge on Wake
Forest's Randolph Childress in the closing seconds of the Cowboys'
victory.
by CNB