Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 20, 1993 TAG: 9301200160
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
TECH ROLLS FLORIDA ATLANTIC
There's a story behind everything, including why it took so long for Virginia Tech to rout Florida Atlantic in basketball Tuesday night."Our videotape didn't work out. We just had to play it by ear. We had to ad-lib a little on defense," said Tech's Thomas Elliott, who had a season-high 23 points as the Hokies rolled 80-55 before a crowd of 4,607.
That, and the fact that the Division II Owls didn't play as poorly as their 2-14 record would indicate, had the Hokies in a temporary funk. Florida Atlantic led by three points with 9:06 left in the first half and trailed by eight with 18:55 left in the game.
But the Hokies pushed that lead to 53-41 with 9:04 to go, then scored the next 11 points - seven by Elliott - to lead 64-41 with 6:02 left. That streak was part of a nearly eight-minute stretch in which Tech outscored the Owls 25-9.
Elliott, a 6-foot-7 senior, hadn't scored more than 22 points since the fifth game of last season, and he had scored a total of 21 points in his past three games. Tech's student section has been riding him, at times cheering when he left a game and calling for widebodied sub Shawn Smith to start.
"It goes with the turf," Elliott said, admitting he tries to tune out the harsh fans. "I hope they reward me when I do well."
He got a big cheer after a play during Tech's 11-0 run. With Tech ahead 57-41, Elliott stole the ball from Florida Atlantic's Tom Wilcox, dribbled coast-to-coast for a two-handed dunk, was fouled and hit the free throw.
The Hokies coasted after that and finished with bit player Travis Jackson and walk-ons Mike Davis and Andrew Zarechnak on the court.
It was the first of three straight non-conference games for the Hokies (6-4). Tech plays at Old Dominion on Saturday.
It was Tech's first-ever game against a school that featured Hokies freshman Jim Jackson's roommate at Fork Union Military Academy - Rob Ritter - and 6-foot-10 Kelly Horford, the brother of Tito, who played for the University of Miami when Tech's Bill Foster coached there.
Florida Atlantic, which will move to Division I next year, isn't eligible for postseason play in either classification because it's playing 16 games against Division I competition - too few to qualify for the NCAA Tournament and too many to qualify for the lower-division playoffs.
That was done on purpose, said Florida Atlantic coach Tim Loomis, so the Owls could get experience before their official entry into Division I. They will be an independent next year but are angling for membership in the Trans America Athletic Conference.
The Hokies will play at Boca Raton next year on a trip that also will take them to Florida International, which visits Cassell Coliseum on Feb. 8.
Florida Atlantic didn't seem awed by its first visit to Cassell, where the Hokies are 96-11 against non-conference teams since the 1978-79 season.
The Owls led as late as the 9:05 mark in the first half, 21-18, before the Hokies went on a 14-4 run to lead 32-25 with 3:10 left.
"They had to touch the fire tonight," Foster said of his players. "It was hot."
Florida Atlantic got 15 points from its frontcourt in the first half. That changed in the second, when the Owls missed four straight in-the-post shots - several of them altered by Tech's 6-foot-10 Jimmy Carruth.
"I thought if we could score inside, we could stay with them," said Loomis, once an assistant at Penn State to former William and Mary head coach Bruce Parkhill. "A team like us, you have to run a lot of set plays, control the basketball and hope to score inside. We didn't score inside in the second half."
Foster said Tech's defense played better late in the first half, and it carried over.
"I just challenged them to make every possession count on defense - pressure them into a lot of mistakes and let our defense become our offense," Foster said.
The Hokies were scoreless from the field for the first nine minutes of the second half, but they increased their lead from 38-28 to 46-35 by making eight of 10 free throws.
Tech, the Metro Conference's best free-throw shooting team, tied a season-high with 39 free-throw attempts and made 33, the most by a Metro team this year. Elliott was 13 of 14.
Smith, with 17 points, became the first Tech freshman since Bobby Beecher in 1982-83 to score in double figures in six straight games, and he is the first Hokie in 36 years to hit double figures in six straight games as a reserve.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL