Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 5, 1992 TAG: 9201050134
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
HOKIES BACK TO .500
For Oliver Purnell, coaching basketball in the New River Valley used to be quite comfortable.Saturday, however, the former Radford coach returned for the first time with his new team, Old Dominion, and found only hostility in Cassell Coliseum.
Virginia Tech pounded the Monarchs 78-62, having led by 26 points in the second half in a game all but decided when Tech outscored ODU 24-9 in the first nine minutes.
"It was a little bit fun getting back here yesterday," said Purnell, who faced Tech for the first time as a head coach. "I certainly wanted us to play well and show my friends that our ballclub's coming along. We didn't, but the ballclub's still coming along."
Tech seems to be, too. Bill Foster's team reached the .500 mark (5-5) for the second time this year with its second blowout in three games. The Hokies beat Florida by 22 points last Saturday.
Tech and ODU played before 2,328 spectators, which Tech officials believe to be the smallest crowd ever in Cassell. Tech and Brown drew an estimated 2,500 on Dec. 28, 1977.
Old Dominion (3-6), a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, is winless in six trips to Blacksburg. Tech is 75-4 against Virginia teams in Cassell Coliseum and this season is 2-2 against CAA teams, having beaten ODU and George Mason and lost to Richmond and William and Mary.
The Hokies begin their Metro Conference schedule Wednesday at 21st-ranked UNC Charlotte.
"We had three really good spurts in the game, two in the first half when we couldn't seem to do anything wrong," Foster said. "The key is to make those spurts get longer for us."
Tech hardly was harried by ODU's press until the second half, when a mild Monarchs rally brought ODU to 15 points behind.
The Hokies used John Rivers and Thomas Elliott to guard CAA scoring leader Ricardo Leonard, averaging 24.5 points per game, and guard Keith Jackson, averaging 12.1.
Leonard was 2-for-9 from the field and Jackson 0-for-2 in the first half as ODU shot 20 percent (7-for-35) from the field.
"[We knew] they'd get a little frustrated," Foster said. "Our whole emphasis was, `Let's make the other three beat us.' "
It worked. Without those two - no other Monarch averages in double figures - ODU was helpless. Saturday was the second time in nine games that ODU hasn't had someone score 20 or more points.
"We just didn't respond very well to a good ballclub playing well on its home court," Purnell said.
The Hokies made 11 of their first 15 field-goal attempts. Six of those were either layups or dunks, and two came on long outlet passes over Old Dominion's full-court press.
"We knew what to do against it," Blacksburg native Jay Purcell said. "They were running all five men up in the backcourt. It was easy to throw over."
In another stretch later in the first half, Tech outscored ODU 10-1 to stretch a 28-19 lead to 38-20. Don Corker had five points in that run, and Purcell finished it with a 3-pointer. The Monarchs missed three shots - one when John Rivers blocked Mike Jones' drive - and had a turnover in that stretch.
Not until the second half did Tech falter, but the Hokies' lapse came after they built a 68-45 lead on Steve Hall's 3-pointer with nine minutes left. An 11-3 ODU run cut Tech's lead to 71-56.
"We played better in the second half, but obviously we were out of the ballgame anyway," Purnell said. "They went right inside to their big guys and got things going. We missed some easy ones early, and it just snowballed."
Tech's starting frontcourt outscored ODU's 29-23 and outrebounded it 26-8, even though the Monarchs' 14 offensive rebounds exposed a Tech weakness.
Tech center Erik Wilson, making his first start of the year, made just two of 10 field-goal attempts but had 11 rebounds, a career high. Purcell led Tech with 19 points and had just two turnovers in 39 minutes.
Foster said the time Tech's players spend watching videotapes of themselves is paying off. Seeing their mistakes instead of just hearing about them helps.
"If it wasn't for video, we wouldn't be nearly as good a team," he said.
\ see microfilm for box score