Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 7, 1995 TAG: 9502070106
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The party line backstage in the Radford University basketball dressing quarters was much the same as that taken by those who adore bulldogs, plaster-stiff hairdos, and Elvis memorabilia:
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
The Highlanders' 61-54 World Wrestling Federation cage match of a Big South Conference victory over Maryland-Baltimore County lacked artistic merit Monday, but that mattered not a whit to Highlanders point guard Anthony Walker.
``It was a very slow-paced game and might have been boring to watch, but I really don't care,'' he said. ``In the situation we're in, what we needed was a win.''
The Highlanders (12-9 overall, 6-5 Big South) got that victory in a game in which they shot 29.6 percent in the first half and 38 percent for the game, had nine shots blocked, and combined with the Retrievers for 44 turnovers (23 by UMBC) and 40 fouls.
UMBC coach Earl Hawkins looked as though he didn't know whether to burst out laughing or go take a leap from a nearby cliff into the icy rapids of the New River that flows outside the Dedmon Center.
``I thought it was one of the ugliest games I've seen,'' he said.
This man has seen some unattractive games, to be sure. The last one with Radford, for example.
UMBC (9-11, 6-4) held Radford to 17 points in the second half of that one and triumphed 60-48.
UMBC partisans, if there were any on hand in an announced assembly of 800 Monday, could admire the long-limbed performance of the Retrievers 7-foot-2 Pascal Fleury, who swatted seven Highlanders shots to give him 82 for the season. Those erasures tied him for the conference record for a campaign with six games to go. Fleury also had a career-high 25 points to accompany 10 rebounds.
``As long as his arms are, he might be 7-8,'' Radford center Antoine Dalton said.
Dalton ought to know after his second game of alternately staring into Fleury's adam's apple or armpit. The 6-9 Dalton didn't score in Baltimore but this time recovered for 17 points and nine rebounds.
Walker chipped in 18 points (only 5-for-14 shooting) and six assists, and Jason Lansdown added 10 points.
``Hey, I thought we played well,'' Lansdown offered.
That depended on how you looked at it. Said Radford coach Ron Bradley: ``Three yards and a cloud of dust, huh? It was just a tough, grind-it-out win, but we'll take it.''
by CNB