Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Before a crowd of 10,471 at the Richmond Coliseum, the Hokies' ride took a severe turn toward the shoulder with a 62-57 Metro Conference loss to Virginia Commonwealth.
VCU scored 11 of the game's last 13 points to wipe out a four-point Tech lead - and seriously damage Tech's hopes for an NCAA at-large bid that only two weeks ago appeared to be almost a given.
The Hokies, who have lost three of their past four games, are 18-8 overall and - more importantly - 4-6 in the Metro. Tech has to win its last two conference games (against South Florida and UNC Charlotte at home) to finish .500 in the Metro.
``I don't have a clue about that,'' said Bill Foster, the Hokies' coach, when asked to assess his club's NCAA hopes. ``You can't worry about that stuff. All you can do is do what you can, and somebody in control at the end [of the season] will tell you whether you're in or not. You can't drive yourself crazy worrying about that stuff.''
One thing Foster wasn't exactly crazy about Thursday was the officiating crew of Lenny Wirtz, John Clougherty and Tom O'Neill. The officials, as they say, ``let 'em play'' and the physical nature of the game played right into the hands of the deeper, stronger Rams.
``We could have used some helmets and pads for this one,'' Foster said. ``The game was far too physical for a college basketball game.
``[James] Naismith [founder of the game] would turn over in his grave if he saw that one. There has to be a little more finesse in the game than that. It just has to be.''
Foster was particularly upset with a hard foul taken by Tech star Ace Custis with 11 minutes, 56 seconds left. Custis, breaking away for a dunk, was hammered in midair by VCU's Marlow Talley, sending Custis hard into the basket support.
``We could have seen Custis' career end on that play,'' Foster said, shaking his head.
Talley was called for an intentional foul, which upset Rams coach Sonny Smith.
``I didn't think it was intentional,'' Smith said. ``I know Bill did. He was upset.''
VCU, using everything but battering rams on defense, and the roughhouse play allowed by the officials kept Tech from finding any offensive rhythm.
``Our guys didn't respond well to that,'' said Foster, slapping his forearm repeatedly. ``We can't do that in practice because we don't have enough guys. If we played like that we couldn't make a road trip.''
The Rams (16-11 overall, 3-7 Metro) put away the Hokies with their inside size and muscle. VCU repeatedly pounded the ball inside for easy baskets between the bewildered Tech defenders.
Despite the sideshow, Tech had its chances. Despite shooting poorly from the field and the free-throw line, the Hokies used an 8-0 spurt to take a 55-51 lead with with 5:10 to play.
But Tech did not make a field-goal attempt the rest of the way.
After cutting it to 55-53 on Bernard Hopkins' offensive rebound off a missed free throw with 3:49 left, the Rams tied it at 55 with 2:45 to go on George Byrd's baseline layup.
After a Tech turnover, Tyron McCoy, who led VCU with 22 points, put the Rams ahead to stay at 57-55 when he broke long off the inbounds pass for an uncontested layup.
Hopkins' free throw with 46.6 seconds left made it 58-55.
On Tech's trip down floor, Shawn Good was fouled, but he missed both free throws.
McCoy hit two free throws with 17.6 seconds left to make it 60-55 and seal Tech's fifth loss in six Metro road games.
``They just beat on us and beat on us,'' Custis said. ``It was very physical. Everybody put a body on you. They used us to clean the glass and get a lot of easy, inside baskets.''
Foster conceded that Tech, which shot 40 percent from the field (18-of-45) and 63 percent from the free-throw line (17-of-27), didn't deserve to win.
``We didn't play well to win,'' he said. ``But it was a game we could have won even though we played poorly. Defensively, we played all right, but offensively we just weren't very smart. We created more turnovers ourselves [15] than they created for us.
``Give VCU credit. They're hard to play because they've got some big bodies and they waste a lot of fouls on you, half of which don't get called.
``We're just going to have to toughen it up a little bit.''
by CNB