ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602190126
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
Nathan Hungate missed Roanoke's first-round game in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament Saturday with the flu. He came close to missing the whole tournament.
With four-tenths of a second left, a leaning 10-foot jump shot by Dewayne Bullock gave the top-seeded Maroons an 84-82 come-from-behind victory over Eastern Mennonite at the Salem Civic Center. It saved Roanoke from the ignominious distinction of being the first No.1 to lose to a No.8 in the tournament's 20 years.
``I want to know what they [the Royals] shot from the field,'' Maroons junior Kevin Sigafoes said. ``Hopefully, not many more of these will come our way.''
Roanoke can't expect many more saves like Bullock's to come its way. But it didn't always expect Bullock to come this way, either.
Bullock, a freshman from Indianapolis, was not high on the Maroons' recruiting list last year. One of eight children of a Pentecostal minister, Bullock was linked to Roanoke College by his AAU coach, Joe Barnes. One of Bullock's AAU teammates, Chuck Gilbert, was going to James Madison, and Barnes asked Dukes assistant coach Ken Tyler if he could find a school in Virginia for Bullock.
After a number of canceled visits, Bullock and family came to Salem in late July and put down his $750 deposit.
His late-game deposit Saturday was surely as valuable to the school.
``I went off my adrenaline,'' said Bullock, who had taken only two other shots and missed both. ``I haven't had a game like that since high school, and often in those games we'd lose.''
As if Bullock's value hadn't risen enough with former Northside star Hungate out, stand-in point guard and All-ODAC second-teamer Jason Bishop fouled out with 8:53 to play and the Maroons trailing 61-55. Bishop took two shots and scored a season-low two points.
``I wasn't really helping the team much, so it wasn't a big loss,'' he said.
Playing without Hungate and Bishop being forced to switch positions certainly hurt Roanoke, though. Bishop said Hungate, who has been ill since last Sunday, had mentioned before the game that he might sit out today's semifinals as well.
``After the game,'' Bishop said, ``he said he thinks he needs to play.''
The Maroons had four scorers in double figures, led by Tim Braun's 23 points. Franklin County High School graduate Derek Bryant matched his school-record 3-point shooting performance of a week ago by making six of 12 and scoring 18 points.
Eastern Mennonite was led by two freshmen, Matt Yoder (game-high 24 points) and Parry McCluer High graduate Mike McElroy (17). They were a combined 7-of-10 from 3-point range.
The Royals never trailed until a Sigafoes 3-pointer put Roanoke ahead 70-69 with 4:27 remaining. It was a captivating performance by the team that was picked to finish last in a preseason poll of the league's coaches.
The Royals shot 50 percent from the field, 67 percent from 3-point range, and had a season-low nine turnovers, none in the first half.
``If you look at the opponent and look at the turnovers - I don't think we had less than 15 all year - you could say this was our best game,'' said Royals coach Tom Baker, whose team closed its season with a 10-15 record.
Even when Sigafoes tied it at 82 with 13 seconds to go, the Royals had a good chance to win. Roanoke's Courtney Fitch, thinking the Maroons were still behind by one point, fouled Yoder with 8.5 seconds left. Yoder went to the line but missed both attempts and let Bullock take the ball off the rim and begin his drive to ecstasy.
``We told him to look for our 3-point shooters first, but if they weren't open, to penetrate as far as he could,'' said Maroons coach Page Moir. ``We told him he might have to take it all the way.''
Little did he know it might have taken the Maroons all the way.
see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB