Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 17, 1994 TAG: 9401170094
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The 6-foot-7 fifth-year senior forward had the game of his career with 27 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots as Radford cranked its nearest neighbor and most intense rival 82-68 in a Big South Conference Sunday matinee at the Dedmon Center.
"You don't need a pep talk," Travis said. "This is Liberty. We don't talk about it, but everybody knows it. You don't get up for Liberty, you shouldn't be in this locker room."
Travis dabbled in many pursuits during the course of his 30-minute tour of duty. He blocked a dunk. He made 10 of 14 field-goal attempts and went 5-for-6 on free throw. He brought the ball up against the press. He converted two three-point plays.
Was it mentioned he went 2-for-4 from 3-point range?
"Which we really don't want for him to do this year," Radford coach Ron Bradley said.
Otherwise, the coach who has sat Travis down at times this season, didn't have much of a case against him this time.
"Ty's given us a great year," Bradley said. "He's had some letdowns. I'm not saying he's going to score like this all the time, but today is what he's capable of."
Travis stepped into a vacuum left by forward Don Burgess, who came in averaging 16.2 points but had only six against Liberty. Burgess, who leads the team in minutes played by a long shot, toiled only 23 minutes, sitting out a good part of the first half with two fouls.
When he returned in the second half, he didn't attempt to intrude on what already had been a good party with Radford leading 39-31 at halftime.
"Everybody was scoring," Burgess said. "I didn't want to force anything. My role was to keep everybody together for the end."
Radford got a big game out of guard Anthony Walker, who had 15 points and missed only one shot, a field-goal attempt, all afternoon. Walker added four assists and two steals and made a couple of flamboyant shots, including a quick-strike reverse stickback while tiptoeing along the baseline.
Jason Lansdown came off the bench with 14 points, and Damian Ingram chipped in eight points. Nine Radford players scored, including Dragan Skoko, who played his most meaningful minutes of the year.
"Those guys allowed us to keep Don out in what was probably the most critical part of the game," Bradley said.
Jason Dixon, the 6-9 center for the Flames (5-6 overall, 2-2 Big South), scored 13 points and added a skimpy four rebounds, which was one reason Radford pounded Liberty 39-24 on the backboards.
"That's just reflective of how Travis outplayed us in the post," Flames coach Jeff Meyer said.
Liberty got a typically vigorous game out of guard Matt Hildebrand, who finished with a career-high 28 points before fouling out with 4:40 left.
"I thought he almost single-handedly kept them in the game in the second half," Bradley said.
Added Johnny Watkins, who assumed some of the defensive responsibility for Hilderbrand: "All he needs is an inch; he'll take a yard."
Still, Radford held Liberty to 41.4 percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers while shooting 54.4 percent itself.
"They've got some great offensive weapons," Meyer said. "But in my mind, it all begins with their man-to-man defense."
It was the third time in four games that Radford's opponent has shot worse than 42 percent. Radford is second in the league in field-goal defense, holding teams to 40.1 percent accuracy.
That's been crucial as the Highlanders (10-3, 4-1) won their fourth-straight and ninth of 10, even having to come back for a game that was scheduled for Saturday night. A power outage in the Dedmon Center forced the postponement until today.
"We looked at the films from last year, and the most disappointing areas were flat man-to-man defense, transition defense and rebounding," Bradley said. "There were times in November that that was all we worked on. We had a lot of very hard practices."
The lead went back and forth in the first half, changing hands four times to go with three ties. But Radford began pulling away in the last 5:12.
Liberty closed to 43-38 on a Hilderbrand 3-pointer 3 minutes, 7 seconds into the second half, but Travis and Burgess answered with baskets and the Highlanders' lead was never less the six the rest of the way.
by CNB