Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 7, 1992 TAG: 9203070188
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: ANDERSON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Friday, in just such a situation, a situation in which the 6-foot-1 guard has broken countless hearts, events did not proceed according to the fairy-tale formula.
Day failed on a quartet of long-range launches in the closing seconds and Radford saw its hopes of advancing to the NCAA tournament crushed in an 88-83 loss to Charleston Southern in the semifinals of the Big South Conference tournament at the Civic Center of Anderson.
Charleston Southern (16-13), the tournament's No. 4 seed, advances to a nationally televised (ESPN) meeting with third-seeded Campbell, a 53-51 upset winner over Liberty in the other semifinal, today at 12:30 p.m. Not only the conference championship, but also the league's first automatic bid to the NCAA will be at stake.
Radford (20-9) closed a season in which it won its first conference regular-season championship by losing two of its last three games.
The Highlanders took their leave in a memorable game, the best of the tournament to that point. In all, there were 11 lead changes and 10 ties, with neither team ahead by more than eight points.
Charleston Southern survived potentially catastrophic foul problems that cost them the services of their best player, guard Darnell Sneed, with 2:56 left, as well as center Travis Brewster. Two other players, point guard Falur Hardarson and guard Shawn Nelson, finished with four fouls.
Sneed finished with 19 points and three assists in 30 minutes, but he saved his best for after the game.
"Being on the bench like that at the end, I've never had a feeling like that," he said. "I don't know how coaches stand it."
Buccaneers coach Gary Edwards, an animated sort on the sidelines, stood it because his only senior, Bernard Nelson, was turning in a career performance.
Nelson, a 6-foot-7 post player, scored 28 points and hauled in a tournament-record 18 rebounds in an iron-man 40 minutes.
"That has to be one of the best performances this tournament has ever seen," Edwards said.
"I knew that once Darnell and Travis went out, that I had to get every board and score at the other end," Nelson said.
Radford, which has defensed big men exceptionally well all year, had no answers for Nelson.
"They ran the same play time and again," Radford coach Ron Bradley said. "They got it to him and he produced."
Radford led by seven points in the second half, but couldn't hold on. Nelson scored 16 of his points and had 11 of his rebounds as Charleston Southern scrapped back.
"In the second half, we got into the kind of game that we don't like," Bradley said. "They got us into a half-court game and our half-court defense let us down. Some of our weaknesses were exposed."
When Radford did have the transition game that it wanted, it couldn't pull away. In a frenetic first 20 minutes, Radford shot 56.7 percent (17 of 30) and got 16 points from Day, but still had only a 49-48 lead.
With Sneed and Nelson combining for 23 points and freshman Shawn Nelson (no relation to Bernard) coming off the bench for 13 while going 3-for-4 from 3-point range, Charleston Southern worked its way into five ties and swapped leads eight times.
Radford got the kind of game it has come to expect from its senior leaders, point guard Chris Hawkins and forward Stephen Barber. Hawkins had 11 points and seven rebounds and Barber 18 points, six assists, four steals, and six rebounds.
The rebounding of those two, plus Don Burgess, who had five to go with 12 points, still didn't prevent Radford from getting killed on the backboards again, this time 40-28.
Both Hawkins and Barber made key plays down the stretch to keep the Highlanders alive. So did junior Brian Schmall, who scored 13 points, and Day.
Finally, it was left to Day to save the tournament.
"I have so much confidence in Doug," Barber said. "And he was open."
Radford has produced in such trying circumstances before, rallying from second-half deficits 12 times this year. But this time, the magic formula turned up in the Charleston Southern medicine cabinet.
The Bucs scored the game's last seven points. \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: CORRECTION