Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 18, 1992 TAG: 9202180214
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
RADFORD BLOWS OUT WINTHROP
The final shot of Radford University's basketball game with guest Winthrop was an exquisite moment in a wonderful year.As the ball was passing through the net, the stragglers of an audience of 1,100 went into delirium. The players and coaches on the Radford bench leapt skyward as if jabbed simultaneously with cattle prods. The floor was mobbed.
The guy who made the shot was pounded and pulled to the extent that his physical well-being was in question for a moment or two.
All this for the last basket in a 94-67 blowout by Radford.
But it was not the margin of victory, nor the happy circumstances in which Radford now finds itself that touched off the celebration. It was the shooter and his shot that did it.
The shot was a peach. It was a reverse, over-the-head, clear-the-people-with-pacemakers, let's-get-a-seismic-reading dunk. A stuff with more than enough.
But it was the guy that threw it down that detonated the Dedmon Center. Shawn Blow, the walk-on and career non-scholarship dude from Kempsville High, playing in only his 10th minute of the year, punctuated Radford's great night.
Of course, it all followed the script.
"When we got up by 18 in the first half [actually 20], I was thinking about how I was going to dunk if I got the chance," Blow said.
As little as he plays, Blow may be one of Radford's most popular players. Still, he has a tough job, toiling for the scout team, getting few game minutes as reward.
"It's all right," he said. "It was this way in high school when I sat on the bench until I was a senior before I got to play any. I'm used to it. I love the game of basketball."
Taking his ease on the bench is not something that Doug Day has ever done much of, in high school or college. The freshly crowned Radford career scoring king kept up his hot streak by scoring 34 points as the Highlanders (10-1 in the Big South Conference, 17-7 overall) won their sixth straight and 12th of their last 13.
Day, who has 1,382 points after taking over as Radford's career scoring leader a game ago, celebrated his 21st birthday by hitting 11 of 17 field-goal attempts, including six of nine from 3-point range. He still has a year of eligibility left.
"Tonight was an emotional moment for me," he said. "It's my birthday, I'd broken Ron Shelburne's scoring record, I had a lot of family members here. I wanted to play my best."
Offensively, it was hard to fault any of the Highlanders, who made 57.6 percent of their shots including 59.3 percent (16 of 27) in the first half. Stephen Barber, Chris Hawkins, and Brian Schmall each had 10 points, and 11 players scored. Yugoslav Dragan Skoko had a scoreless debut as a Radford player.
Winthrop (2-9, 6-18), which is slogging through the final days of coach Steve Vacendak's regime, has lost eight straight. Vacendak has resigned as coach (but not as Winthrop athletic director) effective at the end of the season.
The Eagles got 21 points on 8-for-9 shooting from 6-foot-9 center Eddie Gay, but that wasn't enough to offset 22 turnovers, five by freshman point guard Mike Fayed of Roanoke. Winthrop whittled the first-half deficit to nine points, but never got any closer. The Eagles closed to 10 points with 8:33 left, but Radford steadily pulled away.
With three conference games left, any combination of two Radford victories or Liberty defeats clinches the Highlanders' first regular-season league title.
Highlanders coach Ron Bradley, who espouses the doctrine of "play 'em one at a time," wanted to hear nothing of that, though.
"I don't know anything about magic numbers," he said. \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.