ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604010135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J.
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
For four months and two days, Kentucky had to live with the memory of an early-season thrashing by Massachusetts. On Saturday night, the recurring nightmare was put to rest.
``I don't think we ever doubted our ability,'' said Wildcats senior Mark Pope, ``but they beat us and they beat us handily. This is not like football, where you have to trust somebody else to say who the best team is. You have to do it on the court.''
Kentucky had some nervous moments in the face of a desperate catch-up attempt by the Minutemen, but the Wildcats prevailed 81-74 and advanced to the NCAA championship game against Syracuse on Monday night at the Meadowlands Arena.
``We're very excited about that,'' said Pitino, no doubt aware many analysts had billed the Kentucky-UMass game as the unofficial championship. ``That's going to be a hard team to beat because they pose problems for us.''
Pitino didn't elaborate on what those problems were, but some lingering questions were answered by the Wildcats' play down the stretch. Kentucky (33-2) has played in only two games decided by fewer than 10 points.
``I think [the Wildcats] did great and I think they had trouble,'' Pitino said. ``I see so many teams make a run because the offensive team takes its eyes off the basket. I felt we did a great job of attacking the basket, but our inbounding was poor.''
The Minutemen, who trailed 71-61 with a little less than 2 1/2 minutes remaining, closed to 73-70 on an Edgar Padilla 3-pointer with 59 seconds left. But, Kentucky was mistake-free after that point, scoring on its last five possessions.
``I always felt we were going to play very well in close games because we're an improved free-throw shooting team and we're a good passing team,'' Pitino said. ``But, it's a legitimate question.
``How do you know? I can't tell you we're great [in the clutch]. I can't tell you we're not great. But tonight, when [the Minutemen] made their run, the thing I feel best about was, there was no panic in the eyes of our players.''
It hardly looked as if the game would go down to the wire when Kentucky grabbed a 43-28 lead early in the second half and the Minutemen had their top 3-point threat, Carmelo Travieso, sitting on the bench with four fouls.
``We had to get Travieso in trouble,'' Pitino said. ``John [Calipari] used his bench very well early in the game, but we were going to suffocate them at every level. We were not going to let them see an option.''
The Minutemen were able to survive Travieso's absence and, when a TV timeout resulted from a dead ball with 15:50 remaining, Calipari hustled past mid-court to encourage his players as they left the floor.
``If you wondered why I was jumping, I was trying to get them to reach down,'' said Calipari, who felt Kentucky showed more early emotion than the Minutemen. ``But, I thought the game unfolded the way we wanted it to unfold.
``We gave ourselves a chance to win against a great basketball club. We refused to lose. We never stopped playing. We just didn't make plays down the stretch and they did.''
An 11-4 run enabled the Minutemen to close to 47-41 with 14:31 left, but they did not score on their next seven possessions, committing a shot-clock violation, then failing to get the ball inbounds.
Kentucky subsequently built its lead to 54-41, but again Massachusetts came back, cutting its deficit to three, at 63-60, with 4:56 left. That time, the Minutemen became impatient, with Travieso taking an ill-advised 3-pointer that resulted in an air ball.
The last UMass flurry came after power forward Donta Bright, who had 15 points and nine rebounds, fouled out with 2:42 left. The Minutemen were led by All-America center Marcus Camby, who had 25 points, eight rebounds and six blocks.
``I'm proud of our ballclub,'' Pitino said, ``but, as an alumnus of that school, I can't say enough about [UMass]. I'd say 99 percent of your teams go under with the pressure we were applying.''
Senior guard Tony Delk had 20 points to lead the Wildcats, although leg cramps sent him to the bench on several occasions. His substitute, Jeff Sheppard, scored all seven of his points in the final 5:57.
Kentucky made 12 of 14 free throws in the final 4:04, including six in a row by Pope, who entered the game as a 65.6 percent free-throw shooter. Antoine Walker, with 14 points, joined Delk as the Wildcats' only double-figure scorers.
The Wildcats tried to play down the revenge motive, but they were reminded of the first UMass game when they watched film this past week of the Minutemen's 92-82 victory in Auburn Hills, Mich., in the Great Eight Invitational.
``It was sickening,'' said Kentucky point guard Anthony Epps. ``When we sat back and watched the tape, we all wanted to get up and leave. It was gut-wrenching, just a terrible display of basketball on our part.
``We go into every game respecting our opponents, but we just knew we were a better basketball team than we showed that night.'' see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Kentucky forward Walter McCarty shows UMass hisby CNBstuff in the first half of Saturday's game. color