THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503250531
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DOUG DOUGHTY, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Virginia, whose season was built on its ability to win away from home, saved its most impressive road feat for the Midwest Region semifinals.
The Cavaliers came into Kemper Arena, where Kansas had not lost a non-conference game since 1983, and never trailed in defeating the top-seeded Jayhawks 67-58.
Sophomore guard Harold Deane had 22 points to lead Virginia, which also got 18 points from Curtis Staples and Junior Burrough. Burrough had 11 points in the second half.
The Cavaliers (26-5) advanced to the regional final for the fifth time in school history and will meet defending national champion Arkansas (30-6) in the regional final Sunday at 5 p.m.
The Razorbacks, bidding for a second consecutive NCAA title, rallied from a 10-point second-half deficit to defeat Memphis 96-91 in the evening's first semifinal.
Virginia ignored a partisan Kansas crowd in taking a 6-0 lead and never trailed in the first half, stretching its advantage to 25-16 on a pair of free throws by Yuri Barnes with 5:11 remaining.
The Jayhawks got a boost when U.Va., holding for a last shot, threw the ball away with 9.6 seconds left. Jacque Vaughn's jumper at the halftime buzzer cut the deficit to 31-28.
The difference in the game early was the backcourt. Staples and Deane combined for 19 points before Vaughn and Jerod Haase got on the board and Haase did not have a field goal in the first half.
Kansas did virtually all of its scoring in the paint, repeatedly working the ball to 7-foot-2, 270-pound Greg Ostertag and its other two big men, Scot Pollard and Raefe LaFrentz.
The Jayhawks went 0-for-8 on 3-point shots in the first half and missed all five of their free throws before LaFrentz hit the second of two shots with 2:46 remaining.
LaFrentz, the freshman of the year in the Big Eight, had seven points and six rebounds by the half. Vaughn had six points, all in the final four minutes.
Staples, a freshman from Roanoke, Va., had 12 points by the half, including a pair of 3-point field goals that gave him 98 for the season, tying the ACC record held by Dennis Scott of Georgia Tech.
Burrough, averaging 26 points in his previous six games, had problems getting his shot off against the Jayhawks' mammoth front line and was only 3-for-9 from the field as U.Va. shot 37.5 percent from the field. by CNB