Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993 TAG: 9302050223
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLLEGE PARK, MD. LENGTH: Medium
UVA HITS THE ROAD FOR WIN
Maybe Virginia should play all of its basketball games at Cole Field House.Or, as one of the UVa assistants put it, "We're canceling the rest of our home schedule."
The Cavaliers, who haven't won at home since Jan. 13, captured their fifth road victory of the season when they held off Maryland 70-68 before a sellout crowd of 14,500 Thursday night.
"This is as good a win as we've had all year," UVa coach Jeff Jones said. "It wouldn't have been the end of the season if we had lost, but we needed this one badly."
So badly, it turned out, that Jones went to a zone defense with 17 1/2 minutes left in the first half. In its first 16 games, UVa had played zone for all of about 30 seconds.
"A lot of people have been insistent that we play more zone," Jones said. "To me, it's not that big a deal. If we can win playing zone, we'll play 40 minutes of zone. We're not wedded to man-to-man."
Maryland had lost six of its first seven ACC games, but entered the game as a 3 1/2-point favorite over 24th-ranked Virginia, which had lost four of its previous five games.
The Cavaliers (13-4 overall, 5-3 ACC) were coming off a 59-53 loss to Virginia Tech in which they squandered a 16-point advantage, and the stage was set for another blown-lead story Thursday night.
After trailing by 12 points in the first half, Maryland (10-8, 1-7) took its first lead since the opening moments when Kevin McLinton made a 3-pointer to make it 65-64 with 3:25 left.
Cory Alexander subsequently sank a jumper to put UVa back on top before McLinton went to the line with 2:09 left. McLinton made the first free throw, his 16th in a row, before missing the second as the score remained 66-66.
The Terps never led again. With the 45-second clock winding down, Alexander drove the lane and kicked the ball outside to Doug Smith, whose 3-pointer from the right wing swished with 1:31 left.
"I knew they weren't going to let me shoot," said Alexander, who shot 11-of-15 from the field and finished with a career-high 27 points. "He's [Smith] automatic from there. I didn't even have to look."
Smith had missed nine straight shots from the floor over two games before an earlier 3-pointer with 7:18 left. Clearly, Alexander made the victory possible.
"When his first couple of shots go in, his confidence tends to increase," Jones said. "He carried us for most of the game. Our team looked for Cory."
Alexander scored off the opening tip and made his first six shots, four of them 3-pointers. He had 16 points as UVa went ahead 28-16 with 9:49 left in the first half.
Alexander also drew the defensive assignment on McLinton, who finished with 25 points, a team-high 11 rebounds, seven assists and zero turnovers in 39 minutes.
The Terrapins had a season-low four turnovers, one reason why they were in the game despite shooting 36.8 percent from the field. Maryland, down 69-68, had three shots to take the lead in the final 18 seconds.
The Terps' best shot came when McLinton drove the lane, as he did repeatedly in the second half, but Alexander deflected his one-hander with 15 seconds left.
"I think I played pretty well," McLinton said, "but, personally, I'm kind of critical of myself. I'll be thinking of that last shot."
Alexander put the Cavaliers in a tight spot by missing two one-and-ones, "but, when the game's on the line, you tend to jump a little higher and the adrenaline's flowing a little bit more," he said.
No Virginia player was any harder on himself after the Tech loss than Alexander, who was 0-for-6 in the second half. UVa has never lost a game when Alexander has made 50 percent of his shots, a streak that reached 14 with Thursday night's win.
"Personally, I was very embarrassed after the loss to Tech," he said. "Everybody - family, friends - was asking me `why?' Of any loss I've had here, that hurt the most."
It didn't bother the Cavaliers to go on the road, particularly to Cole Field House, where they have won three games in a row and five out of six. With the victory, the Cavaliers moved one game behind ACC leaders North Carolina, Florida State and Wake Forest.
"You never know how a team is going to react [to a loss]," Williams said. "You'll have to ask Virginia whether they were embarrassed by their loss to Virginia Tech, but they came ready to play tonight." \
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