Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 15, 1994 TAG: 9402150173
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
There were new T-shirts with fierce slogans. There were irritating press clippings from the opponent's hometown newspaper taped to every dressing cage. There were sparkling new white shoes and socks. There were harshly critical comments of the team by Bradley in the paper following the last game.
The Highlanders soaked it all in and went out and shot a 76-73 Valentine's Day arrow through North Carolina-Greensboro's heart at the Dedmon Center.
"He definitely knew how to make us comfortable," Radford guard Damian Ingram said of Bradley's tactics. "And I thought he was mad at us. He's the psychology major."
Added center Tyrone Travis: "He knows how to push buttons, I'll give him that."
Radford (17-5 overall, 11-3 in the Big South Conference) didn't have this one in hand until Don Burgess sank two free throws with nine seconds left to put Radford up by three points.
UNCG (12-10, 8-5), which had beaten Radford 77-67 for its first-ever conference win Jan. 6, set up a play for a 3-point shot that ended with freshman guard Jeremy Davis launching an errant bomb that Travis rebounded. Spartans coach Mike Dement was asked to describe the play.
"Not a very good one," he said. "When a team knows you have to have a 3, you never get a good one."
Radford made its last eight free throws, including six by Burgess in the last 2:13. Burgess was among the conference leaders in foul shooting and had been terrific at the line for his career before going into a 16-for-24 swoon (66.7 percent) over the past four games.
"I told Don he'd been slipping up missing those free throws like that," guard Anthony Walker said.
Burgess went 8-for-8 and Walker made all three of his including a pair with 1:11 left that forced a 72-72 tie.
UNCG had led 72-68 and Davis had a wide-open 3-pointer that he bricked. Burgess responded with a little spinner in the lane but Eric Cothrell came back at the other end to put the Spartans back up by four with 2:01 left.
Walker then tiptoed down the baseline to rebound and put back a Chris Harvey miss with 1:48 left.
"Damian swears he cleared out for me in there," Walker said of his fellow freshman.
The Spartans couldn't get off a shot on the next possession and that's when Walker tied the score with the two free throws.
"We had all kinds of opportunities to lose that game," Bradley said.
Radford came into the game in sole possession of first place in the conference after Towson State lost at Coastal Carolina on Sunday. Radford won its 11th game without defeat at the Dedmon Center this year.
Travis played big with 24 points, nine rebounds, and seven blocked shots, tying his own school record for swats.
"We ran a lot of plays for Tyrone; that was the game plan," said Ingram, who had six assists. "He came through, too."
UNCG had six players with between nine and 14 points, but it shot 42.1 percent for the game, 38.7 percent in the second half.
"You can't play a perfect defensive game," Bradley said. "We made some mistakes. But the intensity was good." \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.