Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 3, 1991 TAG: 9103030231
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: MEMPHIS, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
It might be standing on its point.
That's because Virginia Tech's Jay Purcell made a left-baseline, fall-away jump shot with 15 seconds left and Rod Wheeler made a free throw with seven seconds to go as the Hokies shocked Memphis State 82-79 in the Metro Conference basketball season-ender.
A sellout crowd of 11,200 showed up to bid goodbye to the school's second all-time leading scorer, Elliot Perry, and to Mid-South Coliseum. Instead, Tech soured the celebration by winning for the first time in 13 tries here.
Tech won despite missing 10 straight free throws after the 6:49 mark.
"We just kept giving them life," said Tech senior Antony Moses, who had a game-high 27 points.
Tech (12-15 overall, 6-8 Metro) led 75-62 with 5:30 to go, but Memphis State (15-13, 7-7) rallied and cut it to 79-77 on two free throws by Ernest Smith with 58 seconds left.
Then, with about five seconds left on the shot clock, Purcell drove the left baseline, was cut off, but drilled the shot over Memphis State's Tony Madlock.
"That was a heck of a shot," said MSU coach Larry Finch, whose team had won five of six games before Saturday.
The shot might not have been as difficult for Purcell as it seemed.
"He was giving me the baseline," said Purcell, a freshman from Blacksburg, Va. "He stepped in and cut me off. [But] I shoot better off the dribble when I'm going to the left than right."
Perry made two free throws with seven seconds left. Wheeler was fouled on the inbounds with no time elapsing and sank one of two free throws. Memphis' John McLaughlin missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
The outcome of the game didn't change Tech's first-round Metro Tournament opponent: The Hokies will play Cincinnati, with which they split two games this year, about 9:30 p.m. Thursday at the Roanoke Civic Center.
"I just felt some kind of way that we were going to find a way to win," said Tech coach Frankie Allen, whose Hokies finished the regular season with four victories in six games.
This was the 431st game Memphis State has played in 27 years at Mid-South. Tech had few fond memories of Mid-South and Memphis had an all-time record of 342-88 here, 61-6 against Metro teams, before Saturday.
Apparently, Allen succeeded at drilling the Mid-South hype out of his players' heads. Allen has been accompanying Tech teams to the building for 15 years.
"At our pregame talk, I told them a few Mid-South stories. They got a big kick out of it," said Allen, who nevertheless credited Memphis' shrieking fans with rattling Tech at the free-throw line. "I told them about winning the [Metro] tournament here in '79. We can win in this building."
On Saturday, Tech did so by outrebounding Memphis State 41-29 (22-11 on the offensive end), surviving its pitiful free-throw stretch and weathering Memphis' emotional boost from a second-half pushing incident involving Perry and Tech freshman Don Corker.
With Tech leading 61-53 at the 10-minute mark, Perry drove and was fouled hard by Corker. Perry jumped up and pushed Corker; in the mix-up, a technical foul was called on Memphis' Ben Spiva. Wheeler sank the free throws for a 10-point Tech lead.
"That was a crucial play right there," Finch said. "We had made a run, and I thought Elliot got fouled in the act of shooting."
But the Hokies built their lead, taking a 75-62 advantage on Purcell's dunk off a length-of-the-court inbounds pass.
But even as Tech missed free throws and allowed Memphis to rally, redshirt freshman Jimmy Carruth had at least two rebounds off missed free throws. He finished with eight rebounds.
"We blocked out, but we didn't go after the ball aggressively," Finch said.
And with Tech leading 78-75 with about a minute left, Perry spun and hopscotched down the lane and threw up a leaning jumper, but Carruth blocked it. Moses made a free throw to put Tech ahead by four with 1:06 left.
"I knew he was going to come down and penetrate," said Carruth, who had three blocks. "I saw him coming down and kind of cheated over, figuring he was going to shoot it."
Perry missed 13 of 19 shots, including a 2-of-7 in the first half as Tech built a nine-point lead that dwindled to one at the break.
Although Memphis rallied, Tech felt it had proved itself by then.
see microfilm for box score
by CNB