THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160510
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. LENGTH: 81 lines
Unranked Virginia gave No. 2 Wake Forest its biggest scare of the season Wednesday night. But in the end the player the Cavaliers had dared to beat them met the challenge.
All-American center Tim Duncan scored the game's final four points in a 58-54 victory to keep the Deacons (13-0, 5-0) unbeaten and atop the ACC.
``Our plan was to shut down the others, let Duncan have the game of his life and see if he could beat us,'' Virginia guard Curtis Staples said.
``We did a good job on the others, but he (Duncan) may be the greatest player in college basketball and in the end he beat us.''
The loss ended Virginia's two-game winning streak in the league and left it 11-5, 2-3 ACC.
Duncan scored 28 points, second to a career-high 33 against Maryland last year. He added 14 rebounds.
His layup with 65 seconds remaining gave Wake Forest the lead, He secured the victory with an 8-foot jumper with 12 seconds remaining.
Virginia, the last ACC team to beat the Deacons, had led almost all the way until Duncan's final two goals.
The Deacons led only one possession in the first half and trailed 30-29 at intermission.
But the Cavaliers failed to score after guard Harold Deane's 3-pointer provided a 54-49 lead with 5:03 to play.
Virginia coach Jeff Jones called the defeat one of the most painful he has experienced.
``It is hard to express how bad this one hurts,'' Jones said.
``Our kids did what they had to do for 38 minutes. Unfortunately, it is a 40-minute game and that is what hurt us.''
Jones, though, disagreed with his players who said Duncan was the one who had beaten them.
``I've said all along that Wake Forest isn't a great team just because of Tim Duncan,'' Jones said.
``The other guys are great players, too. Duncan keeps them in the game but the other guys are the ones that hit the shots to beat Duke and Utah.''
Jones pointed to Ricky Peral and Tony Rutland as ``the other guys'' who helped the Deacons win.
Peral had a pair of gems in the final two minutes.
After Duncan had missed his second straight free throw, Peral reached in and tapped it back into the goal at the two-minute mark.
Then, following Duncan's go-ahead goal, Peral slapped away a Deane pass to set up the possession for Duncan to put the victory away.
Rutland, a junior guard from Hampton, hit a big 3-point goal at 2:57 to trim Virginia's lead to two.
Rutland and backcourt mate Jerry Braswell, who are first and third in 3-point shooting in the league, combined to make only 3 of 10.
Jones said that was according to plan. His defense played Duncan straight up, but physical inside, while pressuring on the perimeter.
``Their game plan was very obvious,'' Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said.
``It was exactly the same thing Utah did. They were going to take out our 3-point shooting and it worked. For 39 minutes-plus it worked, but at the end we had No. 21 (Duncan) on our side. That was the difference in the game.''
Utah was the only other team to lead the Deacons at the half, but Wake stormed back for a 70-59 victory.
Virginia kept the pressure on all the way, limiting the Deacons to a season-low 36.2 field-goal percentage.
The Deacons, though, replied to Virginia's physical defense by hitting 20 of 27 free throws.
Until Rutland's 3-pointer at 2:57, the Deacons had scored all 10 points in a 12-minute stretch from the line.
The Cavaliers got only two points from the free-throw line, but made 38.6 percent of their field goals, the highest percentage any team has hit against the Deacons.
In the end, though, Virginia came up dry in the stretch after Odom ordered his team into a zone.
``We had used it a couple of times previously and it worked pretty good,'' Odom said.
``It was our savior in the last five minutes.''
Virginia plays at Duke on Saturday while Wake Forest's next game is against Maryland on Sunday. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
All-American Tim Duncan scored four points in the final 65 seconds
to clinch the victory.