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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994                   TAG: 9402170192
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MAROONS SHUT DOWN QUAKERS

The Maroons shut down Guilford in the second half of their Old Dominion Athletic Conference matchup and clinched the top seed in next week's tournament with an 81-70 men's basketball victory at the Bast Center.

Roanoke, which has won 18 consecutive games, can win the ODAC regular-season title outright with a victory over Hampden-Sydney on Saturday. A victory would also tie the Roanoke record for consecutive victories in a season, set in 1972 by the Maroons' NCAA college division championship team.

"We wanted to get the regular-season title outright. We don't want to share," said Bryant Lee, a junior forward who sparked the Maroons in the first half with 10 points and five rebounds.

Lee scored all of his first-half points in the opening 12 minutes as Roanoke (22-1 overall, 16-1 in the ODAC) took a 21-16 lead. The Maroons stretched it to 28-19 before Guilford (9-13, 7-10) went on an 11-0 run.

Senior guard Paul Ferrell gave the Quakers the lead with six consecutive points. Ferrell scored nine of the final 13 points of the half for Guilford, which led 37-36 at intermission.

"[Ferrell] has had some career nights against us," said Page Moir, Roanoke's coach. "He's a tough match for anyone in the league because he's such a strong all-around athlete. I'm glad to see him graduating."

Senior Hilliary Scott got Roanoke started in the second half, scoring the Maroons' first eight points, including two 3-pointers. Roanoke went back on top 46-43 with 15 minutes, 15 seconds remaining in the game.

"Coach [Moir] kept stressing to us to take the shots we were taking in the first half," said Scott who had 17 of his team-high 22 points in the second half. "Luckily, they started falling."

The lead changed hands three more times before Scott and sophomore Akil Stewart hit consecutive 3-pointers to put the Maroons up for good with 9:40 left.

Roanoke, which also tied the ODAC record for most conference victories in a season set in 1992-93 by Emory & Henry, took its biggest lead of the game at the 6:23 mark when Lee made two free throws after throwing down an alley-oop pass from point guard Dustin Fonder. Guilford cut it to 65-60 on a 3-pointer by Clifton Howard and had a chance to close to two before Ferrell was called for charging.

"We got some nice breaks," said Moir, whose Maroons held Guilford without a field goal for nearly six minutes in the second half.