Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 26, 1990 TAG: 9003262220
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS LENGTH: Long
The Final Four.
The Yellow Jackets got two points from their big men, but Dennis Scott, Kenny Anderson and Brian Oliver combined for 89 as Tech upended Minnesota 93-91 in the NCAA Tournament Southeast Region basketball final.
Anderson, voted the regional's most outstanding player, and Scott combined for 70 points in a marvelous Louisiana Superdome struggle in which each team shot 52 percent.
It came down to a Minnesota miss, Kevin Lynch's 3-point attempt from the corner. Just another typical NCAA gut-wrencher.
"It was a great game," Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins said. "It was a very exciting game. You know, during the course of the game you really forget that you're playing to reach the Final Four. It's so intense, you just concentrate on winning."
The victory put ninth-ranked Tech (28-6) into the NCAA semifinals for the first time, and gave the ACC half of the Final Four field.
The Yellow Jackets, 17-0 outside the ACC this season, play second-ranked Nevada-Las Vegas in one semifinal Saturday at Denver. Duke, the ACC's other national semifinalist, plays Arkansas in the other game at McNichols Arena.
For Minnesota (23-9), the loss ended the Big Ten team's longest advance in NCAA history, and finished the careers of four senior starters who rebuilt a probation-wracked program and enjoyed only nine and 10 wins in their first two years.
"We switched defenses and I thought we played good defense the majority of the day," Gophers coach Clem Haskins said. "Scott must have hit five shots outside the NBA's 3-point line.
"Those were big-time 3-pointers. We had our defense pushed out and had him taking them from 23 feet. That's where you want them to shoot. But he was hitting them."
And Tech needed every one of Scott's 40 points, more than half of those coming on 7-of-12 marksmanship behind the 3-point line. Anderson was 10-of-15 from the floor. Those two and Oliver also were a combined 27 of 33 at the free-throw line.
"It's hard to overcome a 35-11 difference on free throws [attempted]," Haskins said.
Tech, the ACC Tournament champion, has won eight straight and 16 of 18. The Yellow Jackets had only one basket from insiders Malcolm Mackey and Johnny McNeil when McNeil flew down the lane on a break layup with 18:46 left in the game. Guard Karl Brown got the other field goal.
Minnesota got easy baskets throughout. Two-thirds of the Gophers' 39 baskets came inside the paint, and Haskins' team bullied the Yellow Jackets inside.
"Minnesota took it to us early," Cremins said. "They wanted it more than we did. And we were playing nervous."
The Gophers also were getting superb play from forward Willie Burton - he had 35 points and kept the Gophers alive with bombs down the stretch - and center Jim Shikenjanski, who had a career-ending day to remember with 19 points.
Tech found itself down 42-30 after 16 minutes, but scored 15 of the last 20 points of the first half to trail by two. Perhaps just as importantly, the game was being played at the Yellow Jackets' preferred tempo.
"We've come back before," Scott said. "If we hadn't been shooting well, then maybe we would have worried. But we were OK."
Even with the dynamic duo of Scott and Anderson, the shooting accuracy, and the grimacing play of Oliver, limping on a stress fracture that has plagued him all season, Tech's offense was in a continuous struggle with its porous defense. The Yellow Jackets won despite scoring only one field goal in the final 4 1/2 minutes.
After the lead had changed hands seven times in seven minutes, Oliver gave Cremins' team the edge for good, 84-83, with two free throws with 3:50 left.
Two free throws by Scott put the lead at three, and after Lynch made one of two free throws for the Gophers, Minnesota got another offensive rebound, but Scott made his second steal in a minute on a gift pass from Gophers' substitute Mario Green.
With 2:55 left, Anderson's 21-foot 3-pointer from the left wing - the Yellow Jackets' only basket in the final minutes - put Tech in front 89-84.
"That was big, probably the biggest basket in the game," Cremins said.
Burton, his sight improved since receiving a scratched eye in the early minutes of the regional semifinal win over Syracuse, sank another 3-pointer with 2:19 to play.
The Tech lead was two when Oliver bolted down the middle toward a layup. He crashed into Gophers forward Richard Coffey as the ball went through the basket.
Referee Gerald Donaghy called Oliver for a charge and waved off the basket. Then, with 35 seconds left, Lynch made the second of two free throws on a Scott foul, cutting the Tech edge to 89-88.
Minnesota wanted the ball back quickly, so Lynch hacked Oliver after only four seconds. The Tech senior made the free throw and bonus, and the Yellow Jackets led 91-88.
Not surprisingly, the Gophers were trying for a basket and a foul rather than a 3-pointer. But guard Melvin Newbern's jumper from the left baseline rimmed out, and Walter Bond fouled Anderson at 0:20.
The freshman converted the bonus, and Tech's lead was at five again - but hardly safe.
"We thought about fouling there," Cremins said. "But I'm not sure that's the right play. Instead, we wanted to prevent the three and give them two.
"If you foul, you know what happens. The guy makes the first foul shot, misses the second, they rebound and hit a three and win the game."
So, Tech spread its defense, but Burton still found a seam and hit a 3-pointer from the right wing with eight seconds to go.
After Minnesota called its fourth and final timeout, backup guard Connell Lewis fouled Anderson on the Yellow Jackets' inbounds pass.
For the second straight game, Anderson missed a crucial, late one-and-one. Coffey rebounded and passed to Lynch, who went down the left sideline. At this Final four deciding moment, Tech used what it had learned from watching other NCAA Tournament buzzer-baskets.
"We told our guys not to freeze, to contest the last-second shot," Cremins said. "So many times you see it, and people freeze and the shooter is wide open, but Johnny McNeil did a great job on Lynch's shot."
Lynch's rainbow shot over the 6-foot-9 McNeil's outstretched arm bounced away as three Gophers rebounders collided under the basket as the horn sounded.
Clearly, McNeil's last-play defense was the major contribution by Tech's inside duo on this do-or-die day.
"It came down to one shot," said Burton, who made the all-regional team with Anderson, Scott, Newbern and Michigan State scoring leader Steve Smith. "Scott, Anderson, how do you stop them?
"I thought we did a pretty good job. Those two and Oliver, how do you stop them?" MINNESOTA MPFGFTRAFPT Lynch 293-84-833412Green 10-00-00010Lewis 101-30-03222Newbern 328-170-256417Metcalf 10-00-00000Coffey 322-40-09044Burton 3315-230-073335Bond 281-60-02332Shikenjanski 319-141-150219Martin 30-00-00000Totals 20039-755-1137172391 GA. TECH MPFGFTRAFPT Scott 4012-229-1040340Brown 301-30-02232Anderson 3910-159-1183130Oliver 385-159-1251219Barnes 20-00-01000Munlyn 10-00-00000Mackey 240-00-26020McNeil 261-10-03042Totals 20029-5627-353361593 Rebounds include team rebounds Score by periods: Minnesota49-42-91 Georgia Tech47-46-93
Three-point goals - Minnesota: Lynch 2-3, Burton 5-10, Newbern 1-2, Lewis 0-1, Bond 0-2, Totals 8-18. Georgia Tech: Scott 7-12, Anderson 1-2, Oliver 0-1, Brown 0-1, Totals 8-16.
Turnovers - Minnesota 12 (Newbern 3, Burton 3); Georgia Tech 14 (Anderson 5). Blocked shots - Minnesota 2 (Newbern, Burton); Georgia Tech 3 (Mackey 3). Steals - Minnesota 7 (Newbern 3); Georgia Tech 5 (Scott 3).
Technical fouls - Burton. Officials - Donaghy, Croft, Libby. Attendance - 17,782.
by CNB