Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 20, 1994 TAG: 9402210083
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But that's just the tip of the iceberg Roanoke plans to raise in the next few weeks.
"We completed what we considered our preseason. We've done our preliminary work and now we're ready to get started," said Maroons junior Bryant Lee. "We set ourselves up to have a great season and no one is giving up now. We're not satisfied."
Said fellow forward Hilliary Scott: "I've said this from preseason that we had one of the best teams that Roanoke's probably ever had. We knew the key this year was to come out and play hard every game. We knew we had the talent level to stay with anyone in the ODAC or probably in the country, as well."
With a 23-1 overall record, 17-1 in the ODAC, Roanoke's strategy appears to be working. With Saturday's victory, the Maroons tied the school's single-season record of 19 consecutive victories set by the 1972 NCAA small college championship team. The Maroons set the record for conference victories in a season, which had been held by Emory & Henry, the only team to beat Roanoke this season.
"We're not there yet, but I think we're going to rank among the best teams in Roanoke College history and that says a lot," said Page Moir, who is in his fifth season as coach of the Maroons. "I think [winning the ODAC regular-season title] takes some pressure off us. Winning 23 games in the regular season, I think I can easily tell our guys, forget about the NCAA stuff and let's concentrate on what's at hand: adding an ODAC championship banner to our gym after the tournament. But every team is going to be gunning for us and we have to remember that."
Roanoke will be the top seed for the ODAC tournament and will play the eighth-seeded team at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Salem Civic Center. Roanoke's women's team, also the top seed, will play at 1 p.m.
"In a way it's like starting over," Scott said. "At tournament time, all records are out. We're going to come in like we're 0-0 and try to play our best basketball of the year. That's what tournament time is all about."
The Maroons came out flat Saturday and fell behind 34-25 when Hampden-Sydney forward Dee Vick made a 3-pointer with five minutes remining in the first half. Multiple defenses from the Tigers forced 13 turnovers in the first half.
"They kept changing defenses every time down the floor," said Scott, who had four points at intermission. "I think it was more of lack of communication on our part. We couldn't hear [point guard] Dustin [Fonder] sometimes calling out the offense, so we'd have two guys running one thing and three guys running another."
Lee helped get Roanoke back on track by converting a Fonder pass into a layup and drawing a foul from Jason Leonard. Lee's free throw made it 34-30 with 4 minutes, 14 seconds to play.
"We were probably a little too quick in the things we were trying to do," Moir said. "We were seeing some openings and trying to make things happen too quickly instead of moving the ball around, making sure everyone's involved in the offense."
The Tigers (19-4, 14-3) got into some foul trouble in the first half. Sophomore forward Nate Schwab, who averages 18.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, committed three fouls early and spent the last nine minutes of the period on the bench. He had two points and one rebound when Hampden-Sydney went into halftime with a 37-35 lead. Forward Bryan Sheridan also committed three fouls in the first half.
"Our big kids were in foul trouble from early on in the ballgame," said Tony Shaver, Hampden-Sydney's coach. "As a result, we were very tentative inside. I think they overpowered us inside. They ate us up inside, quite frankly. They dominated us on both ends of the floor."
At the beginning of the second half, however, it was outside shooting that plagued the Tigers. Scott was left open for two quick 3-pointers that started a 12-0 run and gave Roanoke a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
"When Hilliary got up and stuck those 3s . . . those were key shots and they really set the tone for the second half for us. That got guys fired back up," Moir said.
Shaver agreed.
"[Scott] is a money player. We were really happy holding him to [four] points in the first half and excited about that. The disappointing thing about that from our standpoint is that we made a couple of really bad mental mistakes to begin the [second] half. . . . You just don't leave an All-American open and we did. It's pretty amazing, but that was probably the key to the ballgame right there."
In the second half, Roanoke burned the Tigers' defense by shooting a blistering 60 percent from the floor.
"With a team as explosive as Roanoke, you've got to keep them off-balance a little bit," Shaver said. "We tried to change our defenses and we did so effectively in the first half. But that attempting to change is what caused us some problems at the beginning of the second half. Mentally, we weren't ready to start the second half."
Scott scored 20 points in the second half to finish with a team-high 24.
Lee had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Maroons. Senior guard Kevin Martin had 10 points and four steals, and Fonder added seven points, 12 assists, two steals and two blocks.
"A lot of were thinking about the chance to go down in history as one of the best teams that's ever been [at Roanoke], as far as record-wise," Fonder said. ". . . We were looking at it like we wanted people to remember us and the only way to do it was to keep winning. So we want to win as many as we can."
Vick paced the Tigers with 23 points and Schwab added 14. Senior forward Billy Reid had 12 points and six rebounds, and Leonard had a team-high 11 rebounds. Tee Jennings, a former standout at William Fleming High School, had nine points, five assists and six steals.
"We don't feel like we played great against Roanoke either time and we've been right in the ballgame," said Shaver, whose Tigers will be seeded second in the ODAC tournament. "We feel like if we can execute and do things the Hampden-Sydney way, we can beat them. But for us to meet Roanoke again, we both have a lot of tough games to get through. We're certainly not looking past that."
by CNB