Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 18, 1994 TAG: 9403180187
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: UNIONDALE, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
Dan Cross drove through the lane for a running one-hander with 7.2 seconds left Thursday night, lifting Florida to a 64-62 victory over upset-minded James Madison in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's East Regional.
The outcome set up a second-round game for third-seeded Florida on Saturday against 11th-seeded Penn, which upset sixth-seeded Nebraska 90-80.
Reserve guard Greg Williams, averaging two points in his freshman season, made a 3-pointer with 48 seconds left, giving Florida a 62-60 lead, but Clayton Ritter hit two free throws 15 seconds later to tie the score. Ritter scored 20 of his 27 points in the second half for 14th-seeded James Madison, which finished the season 20-10.
After Cross, who led Florida with 16 points, gave the Gators the lead, Craig Brown, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half for Florida (26-7), stole the ball and was fouled with five-tenths of a second remaining. He missed both free throws, but it was too late for Lefty Driesell's team.
Driesell, who previously coached Davidson and Maryland in the NCAA Tournament, lost a first-round game for the first time in 12 NCAA appearances.
Darren McLinton finished with 14 points for the Dukes.
Florida shot less than 30 percent from the field and made only two free throws in the first half, but the Gators trailed by four points because James Madison made only 22 percent of its field-goal attempts.
The Gators, ranked 14th nationally, started the second half with a 13-2 run. All but two of the points came from players who had two or fewer at halftime.
That gave Florida a 31-24 advantage, but James Madison, shooting less than 20 percent at that point, found an accurate shooter in Dennis Leonard, who made two 3-pointers to pull the Dukes to 33-32.
The teams traded scoring runs and dreadful shooting droughts in the first half, which ended with JMU ahead 22-18.
Ritter had seven points in an 8-0 run that gave the Dukes an 8-2 lead with 14:13 left, but after he left the game with his second foul a few seconds later, Florida scored nine consecutive points.
The Gators then went more than seven minutes without scoring, allowing JMU to take a 20-11 lead with a 12-0 burst. The Dukes could have had a larger advantage, but they missed 10 of their first 16 free throws.
Cross closed the half by scoring Florida's last seven points in the final 3:54, enabling the Gators to cut their deficit to four at halftime.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB