THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150523
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
If only the Norfolk State Spartans had played with as much emotion as they displayed in a postgame locker room talk that lasted almost an hour.
The Spartans, in their most flat performance of the season, fell to visiting St. Augustine's 87-80 Wednesday night, beaten in nearly every important statistical category and new owners of bruised egos.
Afterward, the team huddled with the coaching staff, members of both soul-searching as raised voices echoed through Echols Arena's underbelly.
``We lacked intensity and focus throughout,'' said Norfolk State coach Mike Bernard. ``St. Augustine's outhustled us, got to every loose ball, grabbed every rebound. They just wanted it more.
``At this point, I don't know what lessons we can learn from this game. It's a tough time to talk about lessons learned.''
The Spartans don't have much recovery time. They step out of conference tonight to visit Columbia Union for a makeup game that was originally scheduled for mid-January.
After Bernard and his coaches left the locker room, the players remained for 10 minutes to hash out their theories on what went wrong and what needs to change.
Despite playing in spurts, the Spartans (17-4 overall, 12-3 in the CIAA) led 57-51 with 12 minutes to play. But from that point, everything went St. Augustine's way.
The Falcons (9-14, 7-9) took the lead for good 64-63 on a transition dunk by James Bryant that provided an emotional lift and seemed to be the first true body blow to take the wind out of Norfolk State.
Down 79-74 with 2:58 left, the Spartans cut St. Augustine's lead to 79-78 on two free throws by Derrick Bryant and a rebound follow by Blitz Wooten.
But Falcons center Joseph Best answered with back-to-back hoops and Mike Harrington, a freshman from Deep Creek High, canned four free throws in the last 19 seconds to hold the Spartans at bay.
All the Spartans could manage in the game's waning minutes were two free throws by Carnell Penn.
``I place the blame on my shoulders,'' said Bryant, one of the team captains. ``If I'd played better, we win. I didn't step up.
``Afterward a lot of players got some things out that they wanted to say. Maybe we should have grown up by now. If not, the time is now.''
Bryant finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, but the Spartans were outrebounded 47-33 by St. Augustine's and Bryant was an uncharacteristic 6-of-18 from the field. Combined with Rodney Carmichael's 1-of-11 outing, the Spartans' starting forwards were 7-of-29 from the field. As a team, Norfolk State shot just 41.7 percent.
Penn led the Spartans with 30 points, 20 in the first half, and Bryant added ``if he hadn't been stroking it in the first half, it would have gotten real ugly.''
LaFonte Moses led the Falcons with 19 points, including four 3-pointers. As a team, St. Augustine's shot 50 percent from the field, 45 percent from 3-point range.
``Every game, I feel deep in my heart that we'll come out on top,'' Bryant said. ``I didn't feel we were in trouble until the horn sounded.'' by CNB