THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502050165
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
After 40 minutes of push and shove, give and take, go and no-go Saturday, Virginia finally had Florida State right where it wanted it.
In overtime.
``We knew the game was ours then,'' Cavaliers' freshman guard Curtis Staples admitted after the 76-63 victory in University Hall.
Florida State, losing its third straight ACC game, dropped to 10-8, 3-6.
Virginia (13-6, 6-3) has won its last eight overtime games, including two this season against Duke and Georgia Tech that went into double overtime.
None of the current Cavaliers has ever lost in overtime while wearing a Virginia uniform.
``I don't know how to explain it,'' senior Jason Williford said. ``But we are so confident in overtime that I prefer for the games to go into overtime.''
Virginia coach Jeff Jones would much rather his Cavaliers win without the dramatics, however.
``I almost broke my other hand,'' quipped Jones, who was so upset by last Wednesday's loss at Maryland that he punched a blackboard and broke his right hand.
``I don't know why we make it so hard on ourselves. At times we can be a pretty good team, but in the first half we looked pretty lousy.''
The Cavaliers were at their absolute best, though, in the five-minute extra session.
Staples, who missed an off-balance 3-pointer at the end of regulation, began the OT route with a quick 3-pointer.
Guard Harold Deane, who had only two points in regulation, ripped off 11 in overtime.
``I had 28 points when we beat them at their place last month, and they weren't going to give me many good looks this time,'' Deane said.
``But you can hold a player down only for so long.''
While Deane was being held down offensively, he did a pretty good job of slowing down the Seminoles' scoring leader, Bob Sura.
Sura, who averages nearly 20 points, was limited to 15 and completed only one of his eight 3-point attempts before fouling out in overtime.
``I just tried to stay in front of him and not let him drive,'' Deane said. ``I know he got frustrated because he wasn't getting his shots or fouls.''
Sura had the opportunity to win the game in regulation with 20 seconds left. He hit one free throw to tie, but missed the second.
But FSU coach Pat Kennedy refused to pin blame on Sura.
The defeat, he said, was a result of two icy spells.
After leading, 35-28, at intermission, the Seminoles didn't score a point in the first seven minutes of the second half and Virginia went ahead, 40-35.
Then, leading 58-54 with 5:06 left in regulation, Florida State got only the one free throw from Sura the rest of the way.
``Considering we were without a point for 12 minutes, you could wonder why the game was as close as it was,'' Kennedy said.
Jones countered that if the Cavaliers had played as aggressively from the start as they did in the second half and overtime, it wouldn't have been close.
``We were taking it to Florida State in the second half and generally looked like we had more life,'' Jones said.
No one was more active in the second half than Junior Burrough, who finished with 26 points after having seven at intermission.
Burrough also had a game-high 19 rebounds.
Virginia's leading scorer, Cory Alexander, had all 12 of his points in the first half.
But when Florida State went to a zone defense in the second half to counter Burrough's inside scoring, Staples took over from the outside.
``I love playing against zones,'' said Staples, who had a trio of 3-pointers in the second half and finished with 14 points.
Kennedy had no explanation for FSU's cold start in the second half.
The dry streak ended only after Virginia was called for seven straight fouls, and then a technical foul on the fans.
Sura hit two of three free throws.
Official Joe Paparo called the technical without a warning after four cups were thrown onto the court.
Jones said Paparo told him he did not have to warn the crowd before calling a technical.
``If that's the rule, that is fine,'' Jones said. ``But at Maryland I was hit by debris thrown from the stands three different times and nothing was called. There should be some consistency.''
Virginia next plays North Carolina State on Wednesday in University Hall. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Junior Burrough grabs an offensive rebound for Virginia against
Florida State's Tim Wooden. Burrough had a game-high 19 boards and
scored 26 points, 19 of which came in Virginia's hot second half and
even hotter overtime period.
by CNB