Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 27, 1993 TAG: 9303270259
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. LENGTH: Medium
"I don't care how much it was," Virginia forward Junior Burrough said. "We had a chance to beat this team and we let it get away."
Cincinnati scored the last nine points to win 71-54 in a game the Cavaliers led with less than 11 minutes remaining.
"I definitely felt it was going down to the wire," said Virginia guard Cory Alexander, who was held to 11 points. "We tried to put the game away and got a little overanxious."
Cincinnati trailed before Erik Martin scored on a stickback to make it 45-44 with 10:34 left, but UVa had a chance to regain the lead when Martin fouled Alexander with 10:25 remaining.
Alexander missed a one-and-one opportunity and then, after the Bearcats had gone ahead 49-46, Burrough missed another one-and-one with 9:24 left. Remarkably, Cincinnati went on a 14-2 run without UVa missing a shot from the field.
"I think we had a lot of opportunities to put them away," said Burrough, who was 3-of-8 from the line in three NCAA Tournament games. "The free throws may have turned the tables in the game."
Virginia made its first eight shots in the second half and 11 of its first 15, but the Cavaliers (21-10) couldn't keep Cincinnati off the boards.
The Bearcats (27-4) had 24 offensive rebounds and an overall advantage of 48-32, which is worse than anybody has beaten the Cavaliers in that department all year.
"We were determined to keep their press from being a factor," Burrough said. "We knew what we had to do and the places we had to be, so it came down to just playing.
"I never would have believed somebody could get 24 offensive rebounds against us, but some of it was the type of shots they were taking. [Nick] Van Exel took a lot of herky-jerky type stuff."
After making his first two shots of the game, Van Exel made one of his next 13, although he finished strong with 11 of his 19 points in the last 8:58.
"He's definitely everything he's hyped up to be," said Alexander, who had Van Exel man-to-man for most of the game. "He's stepped it up in key situations; that's what good players and seniors are supposed to do.
"I came in knowing I wasn't going to score as much as I usually do. When I looked at the box score and I saw I had 14 shots, that was more than I expected."
Alexander had four turnovers and four teammates had at least three. The Cavaliers had a turnover on their first possession, when Alexander flipped the ball past Ted Jeffries, who was looking elsewhere.
"A lot of it was carelessness," Alexander said. "I expected [Cincinnati's press] to be more than it was. I made it out to be too much in my mind and at times I was a little tentative."
There was nothing tentative about Cincinnati's rebounding. The frontcourt trio of Martin, Corie Blount and Terry Nelson combined for 30 rebounds - two short of Virginia's whole team.
"I didn't know what the numbers were, but I knew they weren't good for us," said Jeffries, held to three rebounds, one in the second half.
"I don't know if it was what they were doing or what we were doing, but it's been a while since anybody's done that to us."
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB