Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501050081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLAHASSEE, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
``Choke, choke, choke,'' the Florida State fans yelled in unison.
Maybe they would have been luckier with the Seminole war chant.
Deane hit both ends of three straight one-and-ones, and Virginia held on for an 81-75 victory in the ACC opener for both teams in front of 5,888 fans at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center.
``I heard 'em,'' said Deane, who swished all eight of his free throws in the final 4:10. ``I like the pressure. I want to be at the line, regardless of what the fans are doing.''
Deane, a sophomore guard, scored 24 of his career-high 28 points in the second half as Virginia raised its record to 7-3 and avenged a 100-64 loss at Florida State last year.
``That was plenty embarrassing,'' said Jeff Jones, UVa's coach. ``Not just the margin, but the way we were outhustled. I made sure the players knew, if we weren't prepared, Florida State was capable of doing the same thing.''
In last year's game, the Seminoles led 47-23 at the half. This time, it was Virginia that jumped on top first and never trailed.
Undeterred by Florida State's eight blocked shots, including seven in the first half, Virginia stopped trying to force inside shots and made 11 of 21 3-point field-goal attempts.
``We just told our players to get it out of [the post] and quit pump-faking,'' Jones said. ``Shooting 52 percent from the 3-point line is not typical for us, but most of those shots were open shots.''
After watching an eight-point lead trimmed to 34-33 at the half, Virginia got two 3-pointers from Deane and one from Cory Alexander during a 12-4 run to start the second half.
The Cavaliers were courting disaster when Alexander picked up his third foul and left the game with 15:44 remaining. By the time he returned with 9:35 left, however, UVa had stretched a 50-44 lead to 65-54.
``Harold got off to a slow start because he was concentrating defensively on James Collins, then [Bob] Sura,'' Jones said. ``But when Cory picked up his third foul, Harold took over.''
The Cavaliers were able to build their lead to 67-54 before Florida State went to a zone defense and began a comeback that cut the deficit to 68-63 on a pair of Sura free throws with 5:52 left.
Alexander quickly answered with a 3-pointer off a fast break that was one of two UVa field goals - both by Alexander - in the last nine minutes. Thanks to Sura, the Seminoles didn't go away.
Sura scored 22 points in the second half and finished with 30, giving him 1,822 for his career. That broke the school record of 1,820 held by Jim Oler since 1956.
A 3-pointer by freshman Avery Curry cut the deficit to 77-75 with 19.9 seconds remaining, but Deane quickly hit two free throws. Then, after stealing the inbounds pass, he added two more.
``They did a good job of designating who they wanted to get the ball to,'' said Pat Kennedy, Florida State's coach. ``Obviously, Harold's got a tremendous amount of confidence.
``They've got a double-barreled shotgun out there with Harold and Cory Alexander. I don't see a lot of teams beating them if they're shooting like that.''
All the Cavaliers had to do was look back to their last game, a 64-60 loss to Stanford, to know they don't shoot well all the time. The Cavaliers hit 36.7 percent from the field against the Cardinal.
``How many days has it been since our last game, 13?'' Alexander said. ``That's how many days of [hell] we've had to go through. Games like that, you just don't get over.''
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB