Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501170079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
After watching the second of back-to-back Cory Alexander turnovers midway through the second half Saturday, Virginia basketball coach Jeff Jones had almost run out of patience.
``I turned to [assistants] Pete Herrmann and Tom Perrin and said, `This is a repeat of Vanderbilt,''' said Jones, referring to an early-season UVa setback.
``I really didn't know what to do. We'd taken him out once already. We talked about taking him out again. We decided to stay with him a little bit longer. It's fortunate we did.''
Alexander, held scoreless in the first half, scored 22 points after halftime as Virginia made up a 23-point deficit to beat No.16 Duke 91-88 in double overtime.
``It wasn't the final 20 minutes,'' Jones said. ``It was more like the final 12 minutes or so. I don't know what got into him.''
Alexander was 0-for-6 until he scored his first points of the game on a 3-pointer with 9 minutes, 35 seconds remaining. He had 10 points by the end of regulation, then added 12 points in the two five-minute overtimes.
UVa had no bigger basket than a 3-pointer by the dead-tired Alexander that made it 85-82 with 1:55 left in the second overtime. Alexander first missed a shot from the left wing, but Jamal Robinson tracked down the rebound.
``If I had the first 30 minutes he had, I would have gone into a shell and said, `This isn't my day,''' Duke guard Kenny Blakeney said. ``Instead, he led his team back.''
Alexander played 47 of a possible 50 minutes, including 29 of 30 in the second half and two overtimes. He has played a total of 125 minutes in UVa's last three ACC games.
``In the first half, he wasn't really into it,'' UVa freshman Curtis Staples said. ``I thought something was wrong. But I could see in his eyes when we came back out [that] he was really pumped up.
``I've never seen him that pumped up. I just knew that he wasn't going to play in the second half like he did in the first half. The main thing was, he let the game come to him. He kept all of us involved.''
Alexander was a sophomore when then-unbeaten Virginia ended Duke's 36-game home winning streak in 1993, ``but we led the whole game that year,'' he pointed out.
``I'm going to remember this one. It's my last time coming to Duke, coming to Cameron Indoor, the most fun place to play in the country. It's definitely going to stick in my memory for a very long time.''
And, yet, after throwing a pass way over the head of Chris Alexander (no relation) on a fast break, Alexander would not have been surprised to come out of the game.
He refused to be tempted into believing it wasn't his day.
``I didn't want to get to thinking that,'' he said. ``That's what I got to thinking in the Vanderbilt game. I didn't want to get that mentality.
``Coach [Jones] left me in the game. He told me to calm down and to keep playing hard. When a coach shows that kind of confidence in you, you've just got to go out and make the best of the situation.''
It was not the first time UVa had trailed by more than 20 points this season. The Cavaliers cut a 23-point deficit to three before losing to Ohio University 94-83, and later trailed Vanderbilt by 21 points before falling 70-65.
``Still, we threw away a lot of opportunities in those games,'' Alexander said. ``We made sure today, as much energy as we expended in coming back, it wasn't going to be wasted.
``We walked out for overtime and big Chris said, `You know, we [the seniors] haven't lost an overtime game since we've been here and I don't plan on losing this one.'''
by CNB