THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603160493
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
For prohibitive favorites like the Georgetown Hoyas, one of the advantages of playing on the second day of the NCAA tournament is being able to watch the upsets on the opening day.
On the motivational scale, one shocker like Princeton beating UCLA can equal a thousand stern warnings from a coaching staff.
At least, it did for the Hoyas, who ran all over Mississippi Valley State 93-56 Friday in the first round of the East Regional at the Richmond Coliseum. The Hoyas will face New Mexico (28-4) Sunday at 12:15 in a second-round game.
Georgetown coach John Thompson said his team was well aware of the Princeton upset without him having to say a word.
``I think they'd have to be foolish if I had to say anything,'' Thompson said. ``You look at that and say, `Hey, you better see what's happening.
``When you look at this tournament, that's what I've said all along. That's why you're so nervous and so tight. Anything can happen in one basketball game.''
Anything can certainly happen. But the expected happened Friday. Second-seeded Georgetown (27-7) used a 22-9 first-half run to pull away from the Delta Devils, a No. 15 seed from the Southwest Athletic Conference.
Allen Iverson, playing an hour from his home in Hampton, led the Hoyas with 31 points in just 25 minutes, on 13 of 18 shooting. Georgetown shot better than 62 percent, while Mississippi Valley State made just 29 percent.
``The game wasn't easy,'' Iverson said. ``They have a lot of good athletes on their team.''
Georgetown has one great one in Iverson, the 6-foot-1 guard who was voted a first-team All-American Wednesday.
``I worried about him playing here because that's a lot of pressure, in the NCAA tournament, young kid like that,'' Thompson said. ``See I never forget, that's not Superman, that's Allen. You know, he's a sophomore in college.''
After Friday's game, you would have had a hard time convincing the Delta Devils that Iverson wasn't wearing an `S' on his chest. He hit three of three from 3-point range, drove at will, and threw down a couple of soaring baseline dunks seemingly to break up the monotony of it all.
``Iverson was everything we expected, and maybe some more,'' Delta Devil coach Lafayette Stribling said.
The Delta Devils (23-7) who led the nation in rebounding margin, expected to do better on the glass. But they were outrebounded 50-34. Mississippi Valley's Marcus Mann, the nation's leading rebounder, had 24 points and seven rebounds, but the area around the basket belonged to the Georgetown trio of Othella Harrington, Jahidi White and Cheikh Ya-Ya Dia, who combined for 38 points and 22 rebounds. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Allen Iverson makes up a reverse shot as Mississippi Valley State's
Dendrius Rucker, left, and Anthony Davis can only watch.
by CNB