Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412100063
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
If it doesn't notice the hyphen, that is.
A 60-point margin over Boston College might have turned some heads, but coach Jeff Jones wasn't even impressed Thursday night by a 109-49 triumph over Bethune-Cookman.
``Not that I expect anybody to, but don't get carried away [and] place too much or any importance on the game tonight,'' Jones said.
``This doesn't change anything as far as what happened the other night. We still have a lot of games to play and a lot to prove in those games.''
The Cavaliers, coming off a 70-65 loss to Vanderbilt in their first road game of the season, drove straight from University Hall to Richmond, whence they will fly to Houston for a game Saturday with Rice.
``I thought we came out with the right attitude tonight, but we were never placed in a situation where we had to dig down,'' Jones said. ``In the back of my mind, I'm still not sure about these guys.''
Jones said he considered not starting seniors Cory Alexander and Junior Burrough and was glad he did nothing rash. Alexander scored 28 points in 26 minutes and Burrough hit seven of eight shots from the field.
``I considered a lot of different things,'' Jones said, ``but I basically decided that the team would be best served by going with this lineup.''
The Cavaliers (4-2) hit nine of their first 10 shots and made four consecutive 3-pointers in racing to a 61-27 halftime lead. They shot 58.1 percent for the game, including 11 of 22 3-pointers.
Bethune-Cookman, one of five teams in Division I with a lower field-goal percentage than Virginia last year, shot 25.7 percent for the game. It was the first Division I game of the season for the Wildcats (2-2).
Bethune-Cookman plays in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Virginia was a 94-50 winner over the MEAC champion, North Carolina A&T, nine days ago.
``The team may have gotten a little carried away with the margin of victory in the A&T and Towson State (94-66) games and thought we had bounced back from our loss to Ohio U.,'' Jones said. ``Clearly, we did not.''
Jones said he was actually concerned about the outcome, but the Cavaliers' 60-point margin was their largest since a 124-60 triumph over Johns Hopkins in 1982. UVa had not scored as many as 109 points since 1983.
Alexander, coming off a four-point outing against Vanderbilt, hit his first five shots and led five Virginia players in double figures. Burrough had 19 and freshman Curtis Staples added 15, his third double-figure game in the past four.
``We were upset about what happened at Vanderbilt and took out our anger on this team tonight,'' said Staples, who made five of nine shots from the field, all of them 3-pointers. ``We're going to Rice with a clear mind and a set plan. We don't want to feel like we did in the game at Vanderbilt. We let a lot of people down and let ourselves down.''
The biggest challenge for Jones on Thursday night was in trying not to run up the score. Freshmen Norman Nolan and Chase Metheney did not dress, Metheney because of injury and Nolan for what Jones termed a ``team matter.''
Alexander was among those who refused to put much stock in the lopsided margin.
``Basketball is like going to work and having a bad day and dropping pencils and pens all over the place,'' he said. ``It was the type of day where nothing got going. I think Saturday is going to tell a lot more about this basketball team. Not to take anything from Bethune-Cookman, but they're not the kind of competition we're going to be facing the rest of the year.''
by CNB