Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 15, 1990 TAG: 9003152341
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN SMALLWOOD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG LENGTH: Medium
Unfortunately for Driesell and JMU, the timeout also gave New Orleans a chance to reorganize its tough man-to-man defense, which had choked the life out of the Dukes for the first 32 minutes.
As a result, defensive specialist Willie Richardson harassed Steve Hood one last time, causing the Dukes' leading scorer to come up short on a 3-point attempt and preserving the Privateers' 78-74 victory Wednesday night in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
"We were going to call a timeout if they didn't," said Tim Floyd, the New Orleans coach. "That was a huge defensive possession."
New Orleans (20-10), regular-season and tournament champion of the American South Conference, was forced into a 2-1-2 zone with about eight minutes remaining because four of its 10 players had four fouls and two others had three.
"The zone was something we did out of desperation," Floyd said. "Man-to-man is our bread and butter. Richardson is our best defender."
JMU (20-11) took advantage by controlling the boards behind forward Billy Coles (18 points) and center Barry Brown.
The Dukes grabbed 11 of their 14 offensive rebounds in the second half.
Coles or Brown scored follow-up baskets on four straight JMU possessions to cut a 10-point deficit to 72-70 with 2:51 remaining.
A Privateers turnover gave the Dukes possession and a chance to tie, but Claude Ferdinand turned over the ball and New Orleans' Cass Clarke scooped it up and fed Tony Harris for a layup.
It wasn't surprising that Harris' bucket came on a layup, because 13 of the Privateers' 31 field goals came on that high-percentage shot.
New Orleans shot 67.4 percent from the field, its second-best performance of the season and the best against JMU all year.
"If I had to sum up our defense, I would have to say it was lousy," Driesell said. "They shot 67 percent and that was because most of them were layups. They were getting back-door cuts and all kinds of layups."
The Dukes were virtual no-shows for the first 20 minutes as New Orleans shot 70 percent and raced to a 47-36 lead.
Using their free-wheeling motion offense, the Privateers' guards dribbled in, around and through a passive JMU man-to-man defense to get layups or dump the ball back out for open jumpers from Tank Collins (19 points) and William Moore (14).
"They really got out after us," Driesell said. "That might have been the worst half we've played, and that was because of them. I give them credit. They just beat our butts."
About the only thing New Orleans didn't do right in the first half was keep its best players on the court. The aggressive Privateers were whistled for 13 fouls.
Harris picked up three in the first 10 minutes. Richardson, who hounded Hood from the opening jump, was sitting with three at the 8:58 mark. In addition, Collins and Clarke had two fouls after the first 20 minutes.
In the second half, the foul trouble began to catch up with the Privateers.
New Orleans led 62-46 with 13:04 remaining, but JMU began to whittle away at the lead.
While the Privateers went to a slow-down game to try to run out the clock, the Dukes used a 24-10 run to cut their deficit to two before Ferdinand's turnover.
"We were trying all kinds of gimmicks to run the clock," Floyd said, "but they started putting up shots so quickly and we couldn't stop them on the offensive boards."
"When we finally woke up and decided to play, we came back," Driesell said, "but we had dug such a big hole. We got the shot we wanted at the end, but we shouldn't have been in that situation."
Hood scored a game-high 19 points, but made just five of 16 shots and was 0-of-5 from 3-point range.
"If someone had told me we would get 20 wins against our schedule, I would have said they were crazy," Driesell said. "I was pleased with their performance for the season. I was disappointed in them tonight." NEW ORLEANS (78)
Richardson 2-2 6-8 10, Harris 6-8 3-3 15, Johnson 2-5 1-2 5, Clarke 3-4 2-3 8, Dyer 1-4 0-0 2, Bennett 2-3 0-0 6, Laiche 0-1 0-0 0, Collins 8-11 2-6 18, Moore 7-8 0-0 14. Totals 31-46 14-22 78. JAMES MADISON (74)
Coles 9-14 0-0 18, Fedor 1-1 1-2 3, Brown 3-4 2-2 8, Irvin 3-7 4-5 10, Hood 5-16 9-12 19, Brooks 1-1 0-0 2, Dunnings 0-0 0-0 0, Ferdinand 5-9 3-3 14, Chambers 0-0 0-0 0, Bostic 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-52 19-24 74.
Halftime-47-36, New Orleans. Three-point goals-New Orleans 2-3 (Bennett 2-3), James Madison 1-7 (Coles 0-1, Hood 0-5, Ferdinand 1-1). Fouled out-Coles. Rebounds-New Orleans 20 (Johnson 8), James Madison 28 (Coles, Brown 7). Assists-New Orleans 11 (Bennett, Collins 3), James Madison 7 (Coles 4). Total fouls-New Orleans 23, James Madison 16. A-4,303.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB