THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701190223
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: 70 lines
Virginia had to hope that Harold Deane's absence was a major factor Saturday night in a 78-59 loss to 13th-ranked Duke.
Deane, the Cavaliers' aggressive court leader for four seasons, remained back in Charlottesville, sitting out a one-game suspension for failing to register for enough academic hours in time to meet NCAA rules.
He will return for Virginia's next game, against Georgia Tech on Wednesday night.
Without Deane, the Cavaliers came apart quickly and never resembled the team that had won two straight ACC games before taking No. 2-ranked Wake Forest to the wire earlier in the week.
Duke (14-4, 3-2 ACC) blasted into a 20-point lead in the first 11 minutes and had enough firepower coming off the bench to keep the Cavaliers (11-6, 2-4) in check.
``It was pretty apparent Duke was pumped up by the way they came out and attacked,'' Virginia coach Jeff Jones said.
Senior Jamal Robinson filled in for Deane at point guard and his inexperience in running the offense against a pressure defense was apparent quickly, as the Cavaliers produced only three field goals in the first 10 minutes.
Defensively, the Cavaliers suffered also without Deane.
The Blue Devils' 5-foot-11 point guard Steve Wojciechowski scored a career-high 16 points, collected seven assists and had only one turnover.
``It had to be difficult for them without Deane,'' Wojciechowski said. ``It is easy to get out of your rhythm when things are disrupted a little.''
Robinson said it was evident that the Cavaliers missed Deane. But he and his teammates couldn't be positive that the outcome would have been different with Deane.
``We missed his points and leadership, but Duke played awfully well,'' Robinson said. ``It was like we came out flat and they just put us out of the game quickly.''
The ``flattest'' Cavalier, by his own assessment, was scoring leader Courtney Alexander. The Durham native, who scored 30 points in Cameron Indoor Stadium a year ago, hit only 4 of 16 shots for 11 points this time.
``I have no excuses,'' Alexander said.
``Sure, we missed Harold, but it's not like Jamal played a terrible game.''
Alexander put most of the blame on himself.
``I basically stunk it up on the offensive and defensive sides,'' he said. ``I missed my first couple of shots and never got it going.
``A lot of it was a lack of maturity on my part and the team suffered because of it. You can say that Courtney was humbled tonight.''
The Cavaliers made only one run at the Blue Devils and that came early in the second half.
They trimmed Duke's 17-point halftime lead to nine in the first three minutes of the second half and it seemed a recent history of rallies in this game might repeat itself.
Two years ago, the Cavaliers came from 23 points down to win in double-overtime and a year ago Duke came from 17 back to win.
But the Blue Devils called a 20-second time out and rebuilt the lead to 53-33 in the next four minutes.
Curtis Staples led Virginia with 17 points.
Jones thought his team's greatest short-coming was on the defensive end of the court.
Duke hit 52 percent of its shots, considerably above the 38 percent that U.Va. opponents have averaged.
``That 52 percent sums up the game,'' Jones said.
Jones denied speculation that Deane might not have been able to play regardless because of a possible stress fracture above his right ankle.
Jones said Deane has been bothered by the injury for more than a month and has not practiced more than 30 minutes a session in the last two weeks.
``If there is anything positive in this it is that Harold can use the rest,'' Jones said.