Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501170063
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Long
Sorry. Not even close.
``That game was exciting,'' said guard Cory Alexander late Saturday afternoon as he held an ice pack to his right knee, ``but it was nothing like this.''
In what may be remembered as the greatest comeback in school history, the Cavaliers overcame a 23-point second-half deficit and upset 16th-ranked Duke 91-88 in double overtime.
``If Duke had been playing anybody else and I heard they were up by 23, I wouldn't have watched,'' UVa forward Junior Burrough said. ``I'd have turned off the TV.''
The Cavaliers, who squandered a five-point lead in the first overtime, didn't take the lead for good until sophomore forward Jamal Robinson hit his only field goal of the game to make it 88-86 with 55 seconds remaining.
The verdict wasn't sealed, however, until Alexander made one of two free throws and Burrough added a pair to make it 91-86 with 12 seconds left. The buzzer had sounded when Jeff Capel scored Duke's last two points from the free-throw line.
``I'm definitely dumbfounded,'' said Capel, who finished with a game- and career-high 28 points. ``I couldn't believe it was happening. I guess that's just the way the ball bounces sometimes.''
Capel hit his first six shots - four of them 3-pointers - in pacing Duke to a 30-10 lead after less than 81/2 minutes. The Blue Devils led 40-19 at the half and extended their advantage to 46-23 with 17 minutes, 47 seconds remaining.
``To come back from 25 or 23 [points] down at Cameron Indoor Stadium ... that's unheard of,'' Alexander said. ``That just doesn't happen. I don't know if it's ever happened.''
Jeff Jones, Virginia's coach, said the only UVa comeback he could recall to rival Saturday's was in 1981, when the Cavaliers trailed North Carolina 51-35 in the second half before rallying for an 80-79 overtime victory in Chapel Hill, N.C.
It's hard to say the Blue Devils collapsed Saturday, although they missed 13 of 36 free throws after halftime. It was more a matter of Virginia becoming unstoppable on offense.
The Cavaliers, who shot 27.3 percent (6-of-22) in the first half, scored on 19 of 21 possessions before Alexander missed a 3-point attempt with the score 71-71 and nine seconds remaining in regulation.
``Duke didn't quit,'' Jones said. ``They didn't fold at any time in the second half. I could sense that we were trying to play better, but Duke wouldn't cooperate and let us back in the game.''
Virtually all of Virginia's offense for the first 30 minutes was courtesy of sophomore guard Harold Deane, coming off a sprained ankle that forced him to the bench after five minutes Wednesday night in a 61-37 victory over Clemson.
Deane finished with 22 points Saturday afternoon despite fouling out with 2:43 remaining in the first overtime. Trajan Langdon got three free throws and made all of them to enable Duke to cut a five-point deficit to 76-74.
``I hadn't practiced in two days and I think you started to see fatigue set in,'' said Deane, who played 36 minutes. ``I'm not the type of player who can sit and watch; I wanted to be out there so bad the last overtime.''
Alexander and Burrough took over in his absence, scoring 42 of their combined 45 points in the second half and overtimes. Incredibly, UVa scored 72 points after halftime.
The Cavaliers also got a lift from freshman guard Curtis Staples, who had 12 points - 10 in the second half - before leg cramps forced him from the game after the first overtime.
``To start the second overtime, we said, `Let's just give him an extra blow,''' said Jones, who inserted Robinson, out since the opening minutes of the second half. ``We put Curtis back in, but he went up and down the court one time and his leg locked.''
Said Staples: ``You always hear about the Cameron Crazies and how loud it is, but nobody told me it would be this hot. I could have left my uniform in a tub of water and it wouldn't have been any wetter.''
It was another demoralizing loss for the Blue Devils. Duke has dropped four in a row, the last three with assistant Pete Gaudet subbing for coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was sent home by doctors because of lingering back problems.
Duke had not lost four games in a row since 1984 and had not been 0-4 in the ACC since 1982, Krzyzewski's second season. The Blue Devils (9-6 overall) are likely to fall out of the Associated Press poll for the first time in 153 weeks, the longest active streak in Division I.
``Just because we've got Duke on our chest and we've got great fans and a great coaching staff, we think everything is going to be OK,'' said Blue Devils senior Kenny Blakeney. ``When opponents see our banners and trophies, they just want to kick our butts.''
It was pride more than the opposition that motivated Virginia, likely to return to the poll after improving its record to 10-3. The Cavaliers stand atop the ACC standings at 4-0, with three of the victories on the road.
``After halftime, we met in the hall,'' Alexander said, ``and the biggest thing we said was, `We're not coming out to make this a game or to keep from being embarrassed.' We never thought we couldn't win the game.''
\ see microfilm for box score
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