
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994                   TAG: 9401280205
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

VMI ENDS LONG SLIDE BY BEATING MARSHALL

After the final buzzer sounded, Joe Cantafio smiled and took one last look at the scoreboard to make sure he had seen it correctly: VMI 82, Marshall 78.

The Keydets broke a 13-game losing streak by holding off the Thundering Herd in a Southern Conference basketball game Thursday night at Cameron Hall. The victory was Cantafio's 76th, making him VMI's all-time winningest coach.

The Keydets had lost 29 of their past 30 games, 29 in a row against Division I teams and 21 consecutive regular-season conference games.

"We got a chance in the ballgame, and maybe this is the start of something to come," said Cantafio, who surpassed Charlie Schmaus in the school's record book. Schmaus compiled a record of 75-90 from 1977-82. Cantafio, in his eighth season, is 76-137.

"I want our kids to keep going forward," Cantafio said. "That was a great effort. There were some tremendous individual efforts."

Senior Sean Spriggs came off the bench and got things going for the Keydets (2-13 overall, 1-8 Southern) in the second half. VMI took a 16-point lead, its largest of the game, with 13 minutes to play when Lawrence Gullette scored off a Spriggs assist.

Gullette finished with 13 points and Jonathan Goodman had a team-high 14 points and six rebounds. Bryan Woolsey, Warren Johnson and Darryl Faulkner added 11 points apiece. Spriggs had five points, three steals and seven assists.

The Thundering Herd (6-11, 4-5) closed the gap to five points in the second half when Doug Schieppe made three consecutive 3-pointers. The junior guard was fouled on his next 3-point attempt and converted two of three free throws to pull Marshall to 71-66.

The Herd got as close as two points on a running Schieppe 3-pointer with 30 seconds to play, but Spriggs made two free throws and Bobby Prince added another to seal the victory for VMI.

"It looked shaky there for a minute," Cantafio said. "Nothing's easy. Anyone who watches college basketball knows that."

Schieppe led Marshall with 22 points, including six 3-pointers. Troy Gray added 18 points and Shawn Moore 17.

VMI, which had been hitting only 36.5 percent of its field-goal attempts, made a season-high 48.4 percent and also had a season-high 21 assists.

by CNB