Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 13, 1994 TAG: 9402130182
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
W & L, the 10-member Old Dominion Athletic Conference's ninth-place team, led first-place Roanoke by a basket midway through the second half at the Bast Center.
But in a minute, Roanoke's Kevin Martin hit two 3-pointers around a Dustin Fonder basket and the Maroons suddenly had a six-point lead en route to a 74-63 victory before 2,042 spectators.
Roanoke, the NCAA Division III South Region's top-ranked team, won its 17th in a row (22nd in a row at home) and improved its record to 21-1 overall and 15-1 in the ODAC.
The Maroons, who have two league games left, stayed in position to claim the ODAC regular-season championship. Hampden-Sydney is 14-2 in the league and plays here Feb. 19.
"It'd be nice to have about a three-game lead," said Page Moir, the Maroons' coach. "The first goal we set is to win the ODAC regular season. We probably aren't going to do it unless we win every game from here on out."
Roanoke won its 82nd meeting with W & L and got its 50th victory in the series with its seventh consecutive victory over the Generals.
The Maroons prevented W & L's Verne Canfield from winning the 450th game of his 30-year coaching career. Canfield, though, said he was proud of his young team.
"We certainly didn't walk away from 'em," Canfield said.
Roanoke couldn't run away. This one was iffy before Martin's long shots keyed the 8-0 run that gave the Maroons a 55-49 lead with 8 minutes, 15 seconds left.
The Generals (8-13, 5-10) got a layup from Chris Couzen to make it 58-55 with 5:33 left, but Fonder found Hilliary Scott with a 20-foot pass to the baseline that Scott converted into a three-point play. That made it 61-55 with 5:09 to go, and W & L never got closer than seven after that.
Roanoke's press bothered the Generals, especially late in the second half when it led to some transition baskets. Martin's two 3s, however, came on inbounds plays when he got enough room to shoot over W & L's zone.
"They just pretty much presented themselves," Martin said of the shots. "Maybe [the Generals] thought I wasn't looking for it in the second half. I just had a little more concentration on them than I had been."
The Maroons had to lock in mentally Saturday. The Generals played five defenses - including at least three zones - and held Roanoke to 41.4 percent field-goal shooting in the first half.
Scott, the Maroons' leading scorer at 18.7 points per game, took only seven shots in the first half. Every few times down the court, the Maroons had to stop and figure out what W & L's defense was.
"We kind of got confused on what kind of movement and action to run against it," Martin said.
The Maroons trailed 15-11 with 10:05 left in the first half before Bryant Lee's layup and Jason Bishop's 3-pointer pushed Roanoke toward its five-point halftime lead.
But W & L outscored the Maroons 15-6 in the first six minutes of the second half to take a 43-39 lead. Couzen, a freshman, had seven points and 6-foot-7 Cam Dyer, a sophomore, had six in the run.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB