ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997 TAG: 9702260083
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
The Virginia Tech men's basketball team left the Richmond Coliseum in a most foul mood Tuesday night.
And, needless to say, the Hokies won't be inviting the officiating trio of Duke Edsall, Stan Rote and Bob Donato to dinner in Blacksburg anytime soon.
In a game it virtually had to win to entertain any thoughts of making postseason play, Tech had two shots to beat Virginia in the final eight seconds. On both occasions the Hokies thought their shooter was hit, but no foul was called and UVa slipped out of town with a 58-57 victory.
``I guess they owed UVa from the Duke game,'' said Tech's Ace Custis, referring to an officiating gaffe that helped the Blue Devils beat the Cavaliers 62-61 in Charlottesville on Feb.11.
Trailing by one point with 29.9 seconds left, Tech had the ball. The Hokies milked the clock to 10 seconds, when freshman guard Brendan Dunlop drove the lane and shot.
``I got hit, no doubt,'' Dunlop said. ``Somebody got me, I don't know who.''
Tech coach Bill Foster, who was reprimanded by the Atlantic 10 Conference for calling an officiating trio at La Salle ``three blind mice,'' said ``people get time for less than that.''
Dunlop went crashing hard to the floor, grabbed the loose ball and alertly called a timeout to enable the Hokies to retain possession with five seconds left.
With a reprieve, Tech took one more shot. Troy Manns inbounded the ball to Jim Jackson on the left wing. Jackson took a couple of dribbles and launched an eight-foot jumper. As Jackson was shooting he ran into a brick wall - 6-foot-9, 245-pound UVa freshman Colin Ducharme. The ball flew straight up into the air. There was no whistle.
``It was a foul,'' Jackson said. ``Everybody saw it and it wasn't called. Brendan got fouled on his shot, too. It was obvious. I guess they decided they weren't going to call anything.
``Coming close doesn't matter. It doesn't mean anything. Big deal; we played 'em close. We should have won that game.''
The Hokies, who must beat Xavier on Sunday to finish the regular season with a 15-14 record, felt they were shortchanged.
``I think it's all politics, really,'' said senior Keefe Matthews. ``Virginia is the more high-profile team. They needed a win to get into the NCAA [Tournament field], and now they've got it.
``This one hurts. We had it. The refs made a couple of calls a lot of people will question.''
The Hokies led 36-29 with 17:46 left before UVa (17-11) went on a 21-8 run in the next 10 minutes to take a six-point lead. The Cavs' spurt was fueled by Curtis Staples, who drained three consecutive 3-point goals at one point.
Dunlop, who covered Staples for most of the night, said it was a tough chore tracking the sharpshooter from Roanoke.
``We did a good job on him and [Harold] Deane the first half,'' Dunlop said. ``But they ran Staples off more picks in the second half and he got open.
``It's like guarding [NBA star] Reggie Miller or something. He runs you off every pick and needs just a split second to get the shot off.''
``There's nobody like him,'' said Manns, who was a teammate of Staples on Patrick Henry High School's 1992 Group AAA championship team.
Manns and the Hokies then filed toward their waiting buses.
``It's going to be a long 31/2-hour ride,'' Manns said. ``All we'll be thinking is it's a game we could have won, a game we should have won.''
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB