Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 3, 1993 TAG: 9301030099
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
CAVALIERS REACH 7-0, BUT NOT WITHOUT A SCARE FROM WINTHROP
Even for an unranked Virginia men's basketball team, a loss to unheralded Winthrop might have been one of the all-time shockers.It looked like a possibility Saturday until the Cavaliers, trailing by six points with slightly more than 18 minutes remaining, awakened and pulled away for a 92-68 victory at University Hall.
Virginia, playing at home for the sixth game in a row, outscored the Eagles 46-13 over a span of 12:26 in running its record to 7-0. The Cavaliers were one of 12 unbeaten teams in Division I before Saturday.
"Before the game started, I whispered to Doug Smith, `Doug, I've got a bad feeling about this,' " UVa senior Ted Jeffries said. "He said, `I do, too.'
"It just felt kind of dead in warmups and in the locker room. Not taking anything away from Radford or Winthrop, but it's hard to get up sometimes for some of these games we're supposed to win."
A 1:30 p.m. starting time didn't persuade many UVa fans to pass up the Washington Redskins on television. A crowd in the 2,500-to-3,000 range watched the Cavaliers in their final tuneup before No. 16-ranked Florida State comes to town Wednesday night.
Winthrop (4-3) led 19-10 with 12:17 left in the first half and, after eight lead changes, led 36-33 at halftime. It was the first time UVa has trailed at halftime this season.
The Eagles extended their lead to 39-33 before sophomore Cory Alexander hit a jumper with 18:01 left for the Cavaliers' first field goal of the second half. That was the beginning of the end for Winthrop.
"In the second half, the coaching staff challenged our players not to leave anything out on the floor," UVa coach Jeff Jones said. "It's no coincidence that once our defense started operating at a high level our offense came around."
The Cavaliers scored 59 points in the second half despite shooting only 47.6 percent. Seven of their 20 second-half field goals came on follow shots, and they made four three-point plays.
"Although they got some second shots in the first half, they didn't kill us," Winthrop coach Dan Kenney said. "In the second half, though, they had 12 offensive rebounds and each one was a big one."
Winthrop hit eight of its first 11 shots and shot 48 percent in the first half. However, the Eagles went 8-of-29 (27.6 percent) over the final 20 minutes.
The Eagles were shooting better than 50 percent for the season and had scored in the 80s in all six of their games, a vast improvement over last year, when they lost their last 12 games, and over 1990-91, when Virginia beat them by 46.
The Eagles were picked to finish eighth out of nine teams in the Big South Conference before the season, but they have back seven players who started at least 10 games, not counting 1990-91 starter Shawn Coulter.
They were led Saturday by 6-foot-9 senior Eddie Gay, with 15 points, and Mark Hailey and Mike Fayed with 14 each. It was a career high for Fayed, a sophomore from Cave Spring High School in Roanoke.
Alexander finished with 25 points and was one of four players to post a career high for Virginia. The others were Yuri Barnes, who scored his 13 points in the second half; Jason Williford, with 11; and walk-on Bobby Graves, two.
The afternoon also provided another first - forward Junior Burrough's first assist in the last nine games going back to last season.
\ see microfilm for box score