Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 22, 1993 TAG: 9302220086
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
HEELS PUT THE BLITZ ON CAVS
By the time he left his hotel room Sunday morning, North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith was almost ready to put on a uniform."We haven't been winning up here much," Smith said, in his 32nd year at Carolina. "I made myself watch last year's tape so I could get fired up."
Although the Tar Heel players didn't get to see the video, they hadn't forgotten the 1992 game, and they prevented a repeat with a 78-58 ACC victory at University Hall.
"The guys knew what happened the last time we were up here," UNC senior forward George Lynch said. "We didn't want to get embarrassed again."
It is open to debate whether the Tar Heels were embarrassed last year, when they lost 86-73, but they had lost three of their previous four games at University Hall, with the victory coming in double overtime.
The Cavaliers had won four of their previous five games before Sunday, including a 58-55 victory Thursday night over No. 7-ranked Duke, but 23rd-ranked UVa (16-6 overall, 8-5 ACC) got off to the same slow start that has marked its play even in victory.
"Only this time it was worse," UVa sophomore forward Junior Burrough said. "By the time we made a run at them, it was too late. It's kind of hard to say it was too late in the first half, but it was.
"We could have stayed out there another two hours and I'm not sure it would have been any better. It might have gotten worse."
The Cavaliers made four of their first 22 shots in falling behind 28-10 with 9:45 remaining in the first half. It was 42-22 at halftime, and third-ranked North Carolina (22-3, 11-2) went on to lead 67-41.
"They basically came in here and beat us as bad as we've been beat here in a while," said Burrough, who led all scorers with 19 points. "It was God-awful."
It was more than a while since UVa's last 20-point loss at home, a 90-70 loss to North Carolina State in 1974.
"I didn't feel comfortable [at halftime]," said Smith, whose team rallied from a 21-point second-half deficit in a recent win over Florida State. "I felt they could come back. [We asked], `Are we getting good shots? If we get good shots and they don't get good shots, guess who's going to win?' "
Virginia shot 25.8 percent in the first half, when Burrough and Cory Alexander accounted for 20 of the 22 points. The Cavs' field-goal shooting improved only slightly in the second half, and they finished at 31.3 percent, their low for the season in conference play.
"The two times we've played them, their defense has been far better than any defense we've played against all year," UVa coach Jeff Jones said. "Maybe even more than their size, their defense was exceptional."
Carolina junior Derrick Phelps, who rarely gets mentioned as one of the top point guards in the league, held Alexander to a season-low 10 points. Alexander was 0-for-5 in the second half and, with fellow backcourt starter Cornel Parker, was a combined 5-for-25.
"[Phelps] probably has given Cory a tougher time than anyone," Jones said.
Center Eric Montross scored 10 of the Tar Heels' first 15 points and finished with 17, tying Lynch for team scoring honors. Lynch also had 11 rebounds in recording his 10th double-double of the season.
"I think it was the best I've played against [Virginia]," said Lynch, who is from Roanoke and had averaged 9.8 points in nine previous games against UVa, with a high of 13.
"It was definitely the best I've played up here," Lynch said. "I wanted to come out and play well because this would be my last visit to Charlottesville."
Lynch had not seen the tape of the 1992 game because none of the Tar Heels' players had seen it.
"I told them they were going to watch the tape on the way up here on the bus," Smith said, "but it was one of the few buses we've ridden that didn't have a VCR. They're [the players] so lucky."
In searching for any redeeming value in his team's performance, Jones might find some in the play of seldom-used big man Shawn Wilson, who had five points and four rebounds in 15 minutes. Wilson, who had played a total of 17 minutes in eight previous games, was rewarded with an ovation before halftime.
It was Virginia's first appearance on network television this season, although ABC showed two other games to other parts of the country.
"Obviously, playing this kind of game doesn't help us," said Jones, who looked forward to the kind of exposure that might assist recruiting. "My guess is, a lot of people probably turned it off." \
see microfilm for box score