THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180504
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 67 lines
The corsages were fresh and fragrant. The parents were proud and loving. The usual small crowd inside Cunningham Gym was appreciative and enthusiastic.
Everything else about Senior Night at Virginia Wesleyan on Monday was a disaster.
Eastern Mennonite, a team the Marlins walloped by 33 points on Dec. 2, pitched Virginia Wesleyan into a maze of postseason uncertainty with a resounding 92-79 upset that didn't make a week of off-the-court distractions any easier to handle.
``I think the couple of days away from the team hurt us a lot,'' said senior guard Bernard Hynson, one of seven basketball players given two-game suspensions last week for their part in a fight involving 23 Marlins basketball, baseball and lacrosse players in January.
``I didn't feel the same with the guys tonight as back when we were together. I think everyone pretty much lost the feeling of how to get ready for a game as a team.''
Virginia Wesleyan coach Terry Butterfield had his full complement of players Monday, meaning the suspended seven were able to work out an arrangement with the school by which their suspensions were halved in exchange for an additional day of community service work.
That plan was hatched Friday during a meeting between David E. Buckingham, vice president for student affairs, and Virginia Wesleyan's community arbitration board and community review board.
``This reconfiguration in no way reduces the severity of the sanctions themselves,'' Buckingham said. ``It simply changes the way (athletes) make restitution for the injury they caused the campus community.''
Virginia Wesleyan's chances of winning the ODAC regular-season crown all but ended Saturday when the shorthanded Marlins lost in overtime at Emory & Henry. That left them tied with Roanoke for first but a loser in the tiebreaker because Roanoke swept both regular-season games.
Roanoke's 90-60 victory over Guilford on Monday made it a moot point whether or not the Marlins won. Roanoke clinched first place and the top seed in this weekend's ODAC tournament in Salem, Va.
Virginia Wesleyan finishes in a four-way tie for second with Randolph-Macon, Hampden-Sydney and Bridgewater, but should get the second seed - and a game with seventh-seed Lynchburg - because the Marlins have the best record in head-to-head competition among the four schools.
``The incidents of the last week, combined with the way we played Saturday, hurt,'' senior James MacLeod said. ``The effort that skeleton team game was a pretty positive experience, even though we didn't win.
``We were a little too confident tonight. We didn't play like a first- or second-place team does.''
At least two other things did in the Marlins on Monday against the ODAC's eighth-place team. Virginia Wesleyan, the top free-throw-shooting team in the league, converted just 14 of 25 foul shots. Also the top defensive club in the ODAC, they couldn't find a way to control Eastern Mennonite's Jay Taylor on several critical possessions.
Taylor, one of five Royals in double figures, twice single-handedly ran the shot clock down to five seconds before scoring on short shots he created for himself with one-on-one moves. He finished with 18 points.
Jason Nickerson led the Marlins (15-9, 12-6) with 22 points and eight rebounds. But Nickerson, normally a 75 percent foul shooter, converted just 4 of 9 free throws.
``We just got our butts whipped,'' a somber Butterfield said. ``Give them credit; they took it away from us, especially in the last five minutes.'' MEMO: Staff writer Ed Miller contributed to this story.