Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 10, 1994 TAG: 9401100059
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Suddenly, it's January and the Cavaliers have won five games in a row, the past three by at least 20 points.
Junior center Yuri Barnes matched a career high with 15 points and had a game-high 10 rebounds Sunday as UVa trounced North Carolina State 79-58 at University Hall.
The Cavaliers are enjoying their fun while it lasts, however, because their next five games are against Clemson on the road, Duke and North Carolina at home and Georgia Tech and Wake Forest on the road.
"We're aware of that," said junior forward Junior Burrough, who scored 13 points in only 25 minutes, his season low. "We may lose some games, but this team's going to be all right."
A reverse dunk in the closing seconds by freshman Jamal Robinson gave Virginia consecutive 20-point victories over ACC teams in the regular season for the first time ever. The Cavaliers are 8-3 overall and 2-0 in the conference.
"The first thing Cornel Parker said after we beat Florida State [on Thursday night] was, `Don't forget where we came from,' " UVa coach Jeff Jones said. "It's not that long ago we were 3-3."
Virginia put to rest any ideas of a letdown when it raced to a 12-0 lead in the first 4:16. N.C. State (4-8, 0-2) cut the deficit to 21-15 after Jones went to his bench, but another surge put the Cavaliers on top 37-19 when the half ended.
"I don't feel like the lead was built by intimidation or dunks or else I would have called time out a little earlier," Robinson said. "I didn't want to draw attention to that goose egg on the board."
The second half started in a similar fashion as Virginia built its lead to 49-21 on a three-point play by Parker with 16:35 to play, at which point Robinson called his second timeout.
The Wolfpack went to a full-court zone press that forced four straight Virginia turnovers during one stretch, but N.C. State got no closer than 18 points over the final 20 minutes.
"It was 40 minutes of pretty good defense and 20 minutes of offense," Jones said. "Good basketball teams have good habits, and they have those habits regardless of what the score is."
Although the Cavaliers became somewhat sloppy offensively, committing 13 of their 21 turnovers in the second half, their defense was a constant. N.C. State shot 30.9 percent on field-goal attempts.
"Some teams are good defensively because they make you turn it over; they speed you up," Robinson said. "This one lets you think you're doing what you want to do, but when you go to shoot, they're there.
"It's a conservative defense, but it's sound and solid. You just won't find that extreme - 30 percent from the floor and five [Wolfpack] turnovers. I don't know that I've ever seen that before."
Virginia opponents are shooting 33.1 percent during the Cavaliers' five-game winning streak and 37.4 percent for the season. UVa, on the other hand, has shot between 46 percent and 49 percent in four of the past five games.
"Two things have contributed to our, uh, recent success," Jones said. "We've gotten some easy baskets off our defense, [and] we've come to realize we're not a team that can settle for quick jump shots."
Nobody was more opportunistic Sunday than Barnes, who was averaging 7.9 points in his first year as a starter and had not made as many as half of his shots in the past five games.
"We've just been hammering home to Yuri, `Don't worry about the scoring, play great defense, really hit the boards, run the floor, utilize your athletic ability,' " Jones said. "If you do that, the scoring will come."
Said Barnes: "It's not like he's telling me not to shoot and trying to put my confidence down. When I get the ball in a good scoring position, I'm still going to do what I know to do."
Seldom has Jones gone to the bench as early as he did Sunday, when he used 10 players in the first 10 minutes. Back-up center Chris Alexander, who had career highs of seven points and six rebounds, was one of five UVa reserves who played between nine and 18 minutes.
"We had a couple of nice wins leading up to this game," Jones said, "[but] if they start believing they're pretty good, there's a tendency to relax, and we have absolutely no reason to relax. If anything, this should motivate us to work harder."
by CNB