ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210107
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
The Virginia Tech men's basketball team survived a Carr crash Monday night.
And, at least for now, the Hokies' season remains alive.
Facing the dim prospects of being thrown on a life-support system with another home loss, the Hokies found some oxygen late and sped away from freshman phenom Donnie Carr and La Salle 57-46 before a crowd of 4,347 at Cassell Coliseum.
The victory made Tech's record 9-7 overall and 3-3 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Coming off Saturday's 73-52 home blowout loss to Rhode Island, and with games at Liberty, St.Joseph's and Wake Forest next, the Hokies realized this was your basic do-or-die proposition.
``I don't think there's any question,'' said Bill Foster, Tech's coach. ``If we lose this one and go even with three on the road coming up, you could easily find yourself coming back home digging out of a big-time hole. So this gives us a little breathing room going on the road.''
Carr, La Salle's gunning guard, could have used some air in Cassell. The 6-foot-2 freshman found it tough breathing inside a defensive glove formed by Tech's hustling Jim Jackson.
Carr, who entered the night ranked second in the nation in scoring (27.4 points per game), hit only five of 23 field-goal attempts en route to 20 points, his second-lowest output of the season.
``I just tried to stay up in his face all night long,'' Jackson said. ``You know the guy is going to take a lot of shots, so you just have to buckle up. It was a challenge I looked forward to.''
And Jackson won. Carr, after hitting a pair of back-to-back 3-pointers to give La Salle a 40-39 lead with 7:59 to play, misfired on his final seven shots.
``He felt like I fouled him a few times,'' Jackson said, ``but this ain't high school, where you get tapped and it's an automatic foul. I was in his face on a lot of the shots, it wasn't like he had open looks, so I think maybe I did get to him a little bit.''
With Jackson shadowing Carr, the Explorers (7-6, 2-2) had few options down the stretch. La Salle, getting almost nothing from its other primary offensive threat, 6-5 forward Mike Gizzi, scored six points in the game's final 7:59.
``We were awful the last seven minutes,'' said Speedy Morris, La Salle's coach. ``We seemed to just pack it in, and that's disappointing. You can't just give up. Tech just wanted it more than we did.''
Carr, who the past six games has hit only 41 of 148 field-goal attempts (27.7 percent), said this should have been the Philadelphia school's first A-10 road victory.
``I think we beat ourselves,'' said Carr of the Explorers, who hit only 14 of 52 shots (26.9 percent) from the floor en route to their lowest scoring output of the season.
``Yeah, [Jackson] did a good job on me,'' Carr said, ``but I expect good defense from every team we play. They all try to key on me.''
Maybe La Salle should have pondered the thought of keying on Tech's Ace Custis. The Hokies' star keyed the Hokies' big second half by scoring 14 of his 18 points and grabbing nine of his 16 rebounds after intermission.
``He killed us,'' Morris said. ``That's why he's Ace Custis, one of the top players in our league. In the second half he took over, which is what good players do.''
Custis' baseline drive with 7:23 left gave Tech the lead for good at 41-40. When Custis missed an ensuing free throw, teammate Keefe Matthews tipped the ball into the basket. It was Matthews' only hoop of the night.
``Probably the biggest basket of the game,'' Foster said. ``It's amazing how one play can turn the whole complexion of a game.''
Custis, who registered his eighth double-double of the season, said he and the Hokies needed this one coming off Saturday's fiasco against Rhode Island.
``I've been really down on myself lately,'' Custis said. Assistant ``coach [Bobby] Hussey told me, `Don't try to do everything. Just go out, relax and let things come.'
``Tonight that happened. Good thing. We needed this one. This one was a must.'' NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM STAFF. La Salle's Donnie Carr fakes Techby CNBdefender David Jackson off his feet Monday night. David Jackson's
brother Jim and the Hokies held Carr to 5-of-23 shooting. color.