Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 6, 1990 TAG: 9003062181
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND, VA. LENGTH: Medium
"It isn't often that a team gets a chance to vindicate itself. But these guys reached out and seized the opportunity," Dick Tarrant said Monday night after his Spiders won the Colonial Athletic Association tournament title with a 77-72 victory over James Madison.
The triumph avenged the worst loss in Tarrant's nine years as the Spiders' coach - a 77-43 drubbing by the Dukes last month at James Madison.
It also sends the second-seeded Spiders (22-9) to the NCAA tournament with the CAA's automatic berth.
"Obviously we had a great motivational factor," said tournament most valuable player Ken Atkinson, who scored 25 points as Richmond won the CAA for the second time in three years. "I don't know if revenge was the right word, but we definitely wanted to vindicate ourselves."
"I wish we would have beaten them by two points instead of 30 the last time," James Madison coach Lefty Driesell said. "Sometimes, when you beat someone by 30 and you come back and play them again, I'm not sure our guys were as intense as they should have been."
Fess Irvin scored nine consecutive points for top-seeded James Madison (20-10) to give the Dukes a 55-52 lead midway through the second half.
But Atkinson scored five points and former Patrick Henry High standout Curtis Blair three as the Spiders went on an 8-0 run. Richmond assumed the lead for good when Blair's three-point play gave it a 62-59 lead with 6:48 left.
The closest James Madison got the rest of the way was 72-70 on Irvin's 12-foot jumper from the wing with 1:12 left.
Richmond led almost the entire first half, building its lead to six points four times, the last at 35-29 on a short jumper by Scott Stapleton 2:55 before halftime.
Steve Hood, who led James Madison with 29 points, scored four as the Dukes closed the half with an 8-3 run and trimmed their deficit to 38-37.
Hood, with 91 points in the three-game tournament, broke the CAA record of 80 points set by Navy's David Robinson in 1986.
Kenny Wood added 15 points for Richmond, Blair had 12 - all in the second half - and Stapleton added 10.
Irvin added 17 for James Madison and Billy Coles had 13.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB