Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501160085
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Paced by a career-high 24 points by point guard Shawn Good, the Hokies rebounded from Thursday's gut-turning loss to Louisville with a 78-69 Metro Conference victory over Virginia Commonwealth before 5,784 fans at Cassell Coliseum.
Simply put, Good was great. The 6-foot-3 junior with spring-loaded legs unveiled his entire arsenal - jumpers, jams and power drives - as the Hokies (12-3 overall, 2-2 Metro) pounced on the Rams (12-4, 2-1) early and never let them up.
``My shot was going in, so I just kept driving to the hole and shooting it,'' said Good, whose previous career high was 17 points (twice).
Good had 17 by halftime Saturday and chewed up VCU's Sherman Hamilton, the same defender who stopped two of the Metro's top point men - Louisville's DeJuan Wheat and South Florida's Chucky Atkins - in conference wins last week.
``I knew Hamilton had held DeJuan Wheat to four points. Then yesterday, Ace [Custis, Tech forward] made a little statement to me like [Hamilton] was going to shut me down.''
Not on this day.
``The difference in this ball game was Shawn Good,'' said Sonny Smith, the Rams' coach. ``He took guys off the dribble, he hit the jumper. He's a much more capable point guard than he was a year ago.''
Good tied his career high for field goals in the first half, making eight of 10 shots as the Hokies hurried to a 40-24 halftime lead.
With VCU intent on slowing Tech's inside tandem of Custis and Shawn Smith, Good and his backcourt sidekick, Damon Watlington, were more than willing to take care of the scoring load. Watlington was 6-of-9 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free-throw line to finish with 19 points.
``Damon and I both came out aggressive, much more so than we did against Louisville [a 62-61 loss],'' Good said. ``We tried to penetrate more today and it paid off.''
VCU, which had its seven-game winning streak snapped, was caught with its guard(s) down.
``We came in here thinking that we had to stop the inside game,'' Smith said, ``and in the first half their perimeter guys just killed us. We thought we had to stop Custis and Good, but it was the other guys who did the number on us.
``Of course, we didn't do much the first half. We didn't establish anything but the fact that we were getting beat. We had a plan, but it didn't get there [until] the second half.''
Offensively, senior forward Tyron McCoy was the only VCU player to show up in the horrid first half. McCoy, who finished with a game-high 28 points, had four of the Rams' 10 first-half hoops.
Tech led by as many as 20 (53-33) in the second half before VCU finally answered its wakeup call.
With Tech sloughing off inside, McCoy hit three 3-pointers in a three-minute span during a run that brought the Rams within 66-59 with 2 minutes, 20 seconds to play.
But Tech didn't wilt. The Hokies sealed it at the free-throw line, hitting 13 of 15 down the stretch, including 11 straight.
``They never seemed to miss a free throw at the end when we needed it,'' Smith said.
Tech needed to win to avoid dropping to 1-3 and in a deep hole in the Metro.
``Like Ace said [last week at Southern Mississippi],'' Good said, ``this one was mandatory. We lose this one and we're 1-3, having lost two straight in our coliseum. Nobody wanted to face that.''
Tech coach Bill Foster, who had been worried about a possible hangover from the Louisville loss, said he liked the way his club responded.
``I was pleased that our guys could put Louisville behind them and come back strong as we did in the first half,'' Foster said.
``I sat down with the kids [Friday] and told 'em that all of our losses have come to three teams ranked up in the top 35 or so. We've lost to Louisville, Illinois, which is the only unbeaten team in the Big Ten, and Tulane. We haven't been losing to the Little Sisters of the Poor.''
Tech, which starts a grueling four-game road stretch at Marquette on Tuesday, continued its run of outshooting opponents. Tech, which shot 51.9 percent to VCU's 45.2, has outshot all 15 teams it has played this season.
Besides Good and Watlington, Custis was the only other Hokie in double figures with 15 points. Shawn Smith was limited to nine points, the first time he's failed to reach double figures this season.
``There are going to be games when teams will shut down Ace and Smitty a bit,'' Foster said. ``Our opponents look at films, too. They know what they have to do to beat us. But today, the guards took up the slack.''
And good enough.
see microfilm for box score
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB