Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 31, 1994 TAG: 9501030050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIMMY ROBERTSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
And then a grinch of an official put coal in the Hokies' stockings, leaving Virginia Tech a 57-52 loser in the championship game of the Diamond Club Classic.
The defeat snaps the Hokies' 28-game regular season home court winning streak and extends North Carolina's winning streak to 26 games.
The Hokies (7-4) led 47-44 with 3 minutes, 34 seconds left when senior center Jenny Root picked up her fourth foul while trying to get out of the way of North Carolina's Tracy Reid, who had just gotten a rebound. Tech head coach Carol Alfano elected to take Root, who had dominated Carolina's frontcourt, out of the game. The result was a 7-0 run that ended with Lori Gear burying a 3-pointer to give North Carolina a 51-47 lead it never relinquished.
``I was disappointed in the call,'' said Root, who scored a game-high 22 points. ``I mean, they were letting a lot of stuff go that was worse than that. I could understand it if I had really hacked her, but I was trying to get out of the way.''
``I thought that there was too much time left to keep her [Root] in the game,'' Alfano said of her decision to take Root out. ``I wanted to buy a couple of minutes, and then we got impatient and it cost us.''
Root came back in with 2:22 left and Tech down by four. Christi Osborne hit a free throw to cut the lead to three, 51-48, and then sank two more after North Carolina's All-American Charlotte Smith scored to cut it to 53-50.
Smith, though, scored again inside and after Osborne missed a 3-pointer, Marion Jones, who scored 13 points and dished out seven assists, hit two free throws to give North Carolina a seven-point lead and put away the game.
``If [Gear] doesn't hit that 3-pointer, I think it would have been a different game,'' Alfano said. ``That was a huge shot.''
``I kept rotating Coop [Tonya Cooper], Stephanie [Lawrence], and Lori,'' North Carolina head coach Slyvia Hatchell said. ``I knew sooner or later someone would start hitting those 3's.''
The Tar Heels (12-0) had enough attempts as the Hokies used a match-up 2-3 zone and collapsed on Smith, but North Carolina could not take advantage. The Tar Heels made just five of 19 3-point shots and shot just 31 percent from the floor for the game.
``We had the shots, but they just weren't falling,'' Jones said. ``Our halfcourt offense needs improving, but there's really nothing you can do when you get open shots like that and they aren't falling."
Despite the shooting, the Tar Heels started quickly jumping out to a 6-2 early lead as the Hokies committed three turnovers on their first four possessions. Turnovers plagued Tech all night as they committed 24 - 16 in the first half - but managed take an 18-17 lead on Michelle Hollister's basket with less than eight minutes left. The score was tied at 27 at halftime, primarily because the Tar Heels went through a nine-minute stretch where they only scored one field goal.
``Defense can always be consistent, but offense obviously can't,'' Hatchell said. ``We have played against zones before and had some success, but we just couldn't get it going.''
In the second half, Root took control, scoring 11 points in the half and helping to hold Smith to 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting. Guard Lisa Leftwich finished with 13 points and her basket with 4:51 left gave Tech its largest lead at 47-43 before Root picked up her fourth foul. Root and Leftwich both finished the game with eight rebounds as the shorter Hokies outrebounded North Carolina 54-39.
``I thought defensively we did great and we did as good a job on the boards as we possibly could,'' Alfano said. ``It's just a good news-bad news thing. The good news is that we played hard and held the defending national champs to 57 points. The bad news is that we lost.''
TECH NOTES: Root was named the Diamond Club Classic's most valuable player, the third consecutive Tech player to do so (Leftwich in 1992 and Osborne in '93). Osborne was named to the all-tournament team, as was North Carolina's Smith, Jones, and Tracy Reid, who scored 16 in the championship game. Dayna Smith of Rhode Island was also named to the team ... Tech is now 2-6 all-time versus North Carolina ... Tech has lost both of its games against top-25 opponents this year (UNC and Texas Tech). The Hokies next game will be Tuesday at William and Mary. ... In the tournament's consolation game, Rhode Island beat Furman 82-75.
see microfilm for box score
by CNB