ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 24, 1997 TAG: 9702250077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
There was absolutely no chance of the Virginia Tech men's basketball team losing Sunday at Cassell Coliseum.
Not on the day Hokies star Ace Custis had his jersey retired. Not on Senior Day. And especially not after what the opposing coach said seven weeks ago.
Feeding off motivation supplied from all angles, the fired-up Hokies put a stop to a season-high four-game losing streak, whipping Duquesne 76-62 in front of 6,103 fans.
Bill Foster, who picked up his 100th victory at Tech, didn't need any fiery pregame speeches for this one. Basically, this one was done before it started, Custis said.
``There was no way we were losing today,'' Custis said. ``Nope. Just wasn't going to happen. Not with all this going on.''
First, there was the emotional pregame Senior Day ceremony, in which Custis, Troy Manns, Keefe Matthews and the Jackson twins - Jim and David - were paid tribute.
Then came the announcement that nearly felled the unsuspecting Custis: His No.20 is heading to the Cassell wall, where it will join those of Dell Curry and Bimbo Coles, both in the NBA, and women's star Renee Dennis.
``I didn't have any idea,'' Custis said, ``but believe me it felt good. That's a dream come true.''
And if you were a Hokies player or coach, it was a dream come true to see a comment made by Scott Edgar, Duquesne's coach, inspire the Hokies to victory.
Edgar's comment, made in the Polumbo Center hallway after his Dukes beat Tech 76-63 in Pittsburgh on Jan.6, was overheard by Custis.
Edgar ``hollered to everybody they had kicked our rear ends up there,'' Custis said. ``I heard it. And I went in the locker room and told our guys about it.''
On Sunday morning, Edgar's exact quote - which included an unprintable adjective and noun - somehow had made its way to the Hokies' locker room. Just a little refresher course, Foster said.
``There was a little dialogue up there that none of us had forgotten, and Bobby Hussey [Tech assistant] wrote it down and stuck it in the file,'' Foster said. ``So we had that on the bulletin board for a little motivation, and I think it helped.''
When asked if his comment had blown up in his face Sunday, Edgar said: ``If I hurt their feelings, then I apologize. They kicked mine today then. We did and they returned the favor today.''
No doubt.
The Hokies (14-13 overall, 7-8 Atlantic 10), who virtually locked up third place in the A-10 West Division with the victory, played as well as they have all season. Tech shot 57.7 percent from the field (25-for-43) and scored more than 60 points in a game for the first time since beating Georgia Southern 76-41 on Jan.15, a span covering 13 games.
Tech took command with a 27-6 run in the first half in which the Dukes (4-10, 8-16) scored only one field goal in nearly 12 minutes.
Tech went into the locker room at halftime with 41 points and a 15-point lead. It was almost a surreal experience for an outfit that scored 41 in 40 minutes Tuesday night in losing to Temple.
``I couldn't believe it,'' Foster said. ``Usually it's the end of the game before we get that many.''
The Dukes never got closer than 11 in the second half as Tech continued to shoot well (10-for-17, 58.8 percent) and spread the wealth around.
Jim Jackson, who hadn't scored in double figures in his past nine games, paced Tech with 16 points. Freshman guard Brendan Dunlop scored a career-high 15 points, while Matthews had 13 and Troy Manns 11. Custis had seven points and 11 rebounds.
Seeing the Hokies' shooting effort was like finding an oasis in the desert for Foster, whose club had shot an agonizing 35.1, 34.0 and 33.3 percent from the floor in its past three games.
``It's amazing what a little shooting will do for you,'' Foster said. ``This should help our confidence and an outlook on life.
``The fat lady was tuning up her chords early in the week. But these kids bounced back and played hard. They really needed this. Their confidence level was just about a notch below mine. We've had a lot of games, we feel, that we've let get away because we didn't shoot the ball well.''
Duquesne had that problem Sunday, making 19 of 58 field-goal attempts (32.8 percent). The Dukes would have been totally embarrassed if not for junior guard Mike James, who had 24 of his club's first 31 points and finished with a season-high 35.
Tom Pipkins, whose 19.3-point scoring average led Duquesne entering Sunday, had a nightmarish game, missing 14 of 16 shots and finishing with seven points.
``We're glad to take care of business against those guys,'' said Custis, who admitted to engaging in more court ``trash talk'' than normal.
``We owed them one.''
Jim Jackson had one parting shot for Edgar.
``Tell him we said thanks,'' Jackson said, smiling.
NOTE: please see microfilm for scores
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Virginia Tech senior forward Aceby CNBCustis holds up his framed jersey for the crowd after it was
announced his number would be retired. The
announcement came as a surprise to Custis. color.