Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 1, 1992 TAG: 9203010108
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN SMALLWOOD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This year the Tigers can take the decision out of the committee's hands.
Saturday at the Salem Civic Center, Hampden-Sydney moved closer to securing the ODAC's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament by beating Virginia Wesleyan 77-63 in a semifinal game.
Senior guard Bat Barber scored 11 of his 28 points in the final 5 1/2 minutes as the top-seeded Tigers (22-5) pulled away from the Blue Marlins (18-9).
Hampden-Sydney will play Emory & Henry, a 72-61 winner over Bridgewater, for the championship at 3 p.m. today.
"The only way to assure a bid into the tournament is to win the ODAC," said Hampden-Sydney coach Tony Shaver, whose team finished 21-6 last year. "We have a chance to do that by winning [today]."
With Hampden-Sydney leading 58-57, Barber scored five straight points to start an 11-1 run. Barber scored nine points during the spurt and had 16 of the Tigers' 31 points in the second half.
"During crunch situations, I like to have the ball in my hands," said Barber, a second-team AllODAC selection. "Luckily, the ball was dropping for me today."
Hampden-Sydney needed Barber to step forward in the second half because Virginia Wesleyan shut down ODAC player of the year Russell Turner.
After Turner scored 12 points in the first half, the Blue Marlins surrounded him with bulky defenders Rick Chalk, Scott Spruill and Walt Lassiter.
Turner, who finished with 15 points, had just two field-goal attempts in the second half.
"People are going to do that to Russell; sometimes they'll triple team," said Shaver. "We've developed enough depth and confidence that we can make people pay for doing that."
Brad Pomery scored 11 points, and freshman Jason Leonard came off the bench to add 11.
Trailing by 12 at halftime, Virginia Wesleyan stormed back in the opening minutes of the second half.
Paced by Lassiter, who finished with 21 points, the Marlins used a 13-2 run to pull to 48-47.
Spruill followed in a Lassiter miss to give Virginia Wesleyan its first lead since early in the game.
Barber responded. He sank a 3-pointer, then stole the ball from Chalk and scored a break-away layup to put the Tigers up 53-49.
The Marlins tied the score at 53 with 9:56 left, then went cold. Hampden-Sydney outscored them 24-10 the rest of the way.
"You see it so much," said Virginia Wesleyan's Terry Butterfield. "A team works so hard to come back and then relaxes. I thought we worked hard. We just didn't get much done in those last 15 minutes." \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB