THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411200183
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
There is disappointing, and unpleasant, even repugnant. And then, deeper in the sports vernacular, there is . . . stinkage.
Bingo.
``Some real stinkage there, huh?'' said Virginia assistant basketball coach Tom Perrin, slumped in a chair outside the Cavaliers' locker room early Saturday morning. ``We stink right now.''
Fourteenth-ranked Virginia had just lost to Ohio University, 94-83. The preseason National Invitation Tournament second-round game had been snatched from U.Va. by a two-headed beast - poor shooting and porous defense.
The Cavaliers (1-1), who barely beat Old Dominion, 83-80, via last-minute heroics, found the Bobcats too formidable to overtake. Oh, they had Ohio U. on the run late. Virginia was within three with 2 1/2 minutes to play, after trailing by 21 at the eight-minute mark.
But when Virginia fell short, all fingers pointed toward Virginia's lousy defense and shooting.
Sophomore guard Harold Deane has made one of 13 3-pointers. Junior Cory Alexander is 1-for-11. Overall, U.Va. is 6-for-42 (14 percent) from beyond the arc.
The picture is skewed by the handful of 3-pointers Virginia fired up in desperation late Friday. Still, the frantic finish was needed because the Cavaliers have forgotten their defensive roots.
They gave up more than 90 points for only the third time in coach Jeff Jones' five years.
``I mean, the fire has to be lit underneath us somewhere,'' Alexander said. ``Teams are scoring a lot of points on us. That's something I'm not used to, a lot of players aren't used to, coach Jones definitely isn't used to.
``Something's going to have to happen, I don't know what it is . . . we have to be able to go out and play defense like we always have.''
In Saturday's NIT game, David Vaughn had 21 points and 10 rebounds in Memphis' 94-82 victory over San Francisco in Memphis. The Tigers gained the semifinals with New Mexico State, George Washington and Ohio University. by CNB