Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 24, 1993 TAG: 9302240174
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MAROONS REACH SEMIFINALS
A replacement will have to be found for Hilliary Scott on the stats crew at the Old Dominion Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament.Scott will be making statistics starting Thursday night, not keeping them.
Scott, a 6-foot-5 junior, scored 15 of his team-high 20 points in the second half Tuesday night as Roanoke College advanced to the ODAC semifinals with a 71-58 victory over Guilford College.
It was the first time since 1985 that the Maroons have won 20 games and the first time since 1990 they have made it to the semifinals at the Salem Civic Center.
"It's kind of tough when the tournament is held in your town and you're not playing," Scott said. "I worked doing the stats [the past couple of years], but that didn't make it any easier."
Second-seeded Roanoke (20-5) will play third-seeded Randolph-Macon (17-8) at 9 p.m. Thursday. The Yellow Jackets, who advanced with a 61-58 victory over Hampden-Sydney, favor the same half-court style of play Guilford used.
"We felt [Guilford] was going to try and make us play defense for at least 25 or 30 seconds on each possession," Maroons coach Page Moir said. "That's why we worked against the four-corners [delay game] in practice Monday."
The Quakers (10-14) had eight players in uniform and used seven. Two players fouled out, and two others finished with four fouls each.
"We played the way we had to play," said Guilford coach Jack Jensen, whose second-leading scorer, freshman Adrien Pritchard, quit the team two weeks ago. "We did what we wanted in the first half, but, once they got up by 10 or 12 points, we had to play more of an up-and-down game."
Roanoke, which led 23-19 despite shooting 32.1 percent in the first half, made five of six field-goal attempts from 3-point range in boosting its lead to 48-32 with 7:22 left.
Guilford got as close as 54-46 before Roanoke made 15 of 20 free throws in the final 2:52.
"I really felt pretty good at the half because we were leading and we'd missed a lot of shots we normally hit," Moir said. "With a little more patience I felt we'd knock them down."
Down the hall, Guilford was thinking the same thing.
"We must have missed half-a-dozen layups," said Jensen, who at times used a lineup with four players 6-2 or shorter. "If we gotten up six or seven, doing what we were doing, it would have been hard for them to guard us."
Roanoke blew open the game by shooting 57.1 percent in the second half and outrebounding the Quakers 39-30. Rick Becker, a 6-8 senior from Christiansburg, had 16 rebounds to go with 11 points.
"They've got a great mix," Jensen said. "They've got good inside players and good perimeter players and [point guard Dustin] Fonder knows how it all works. But the real key was they kept winning when they lost Becker."
Becker missed nine games with a shoulder injury, and Tuesday night the Maroons were without third-leading scorer Kevin Martin, in uniform but fighting the flu.
Martin should be available Thursday night, when Moir will make his first appearance at the Salem Civic Center - literally - since his first season as the Maroons' coach.
"I don't even go when we're not playing," Moir said. "When our season ends, I'm on the road recruiting."
In Moir's eyes, the Maroons have been the victims of circumstances in first-round losses the past two years.
In 1991, the team struggled after losing leading scorer Joe McDowell to injury. Last year, Roanoke had to go on the road despite a 12-6 conference record and was a 61-59 loser to Virginia Wesleyan.
"We belong at the civic center," Moir said. "We have a lot of hometown people who support the [ODAC Tournament] and want to see us. If Roanoke makes it to the final four, it helps ticket sales. It hurts not to be over there."