
DATE: Monday, March 3, 1997                 TAG: 9703030194

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   88 lines

UPSTART JMU WILL TRY FOR BRING SOME SURPRISES FOR ODU

Lefty Driesell will have yet another chance tonight to take his James Madison University Dukes to the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Dukes nearly blew a 19-point, second-half lead, but emerged with a 60-57 victory over UNC Wilmington Saturday when Stan Simmons' 3-point shot rimmed out at the buzzer in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.

The victory sends JMU (16-12), the tournament's sixth seed, into tonight's championship game against top-seeded Old Dominion (HTS, 7 p.m.) at the Richmond Coliseum. The winner claims the CAA's automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

It will be the sixth CAA championship game appearance for JMU in nine years under Driesell. The Dukes have won only once under Driesell - in 1994, when a last-second Kent Culuko shot beat ODU 77-76.

``Old Dominion has a great team and manhandled us the last time we played them (72-66 in Norfolk),'' said Driesell, the 65-year-old Norfolk native.

``But we'll get after them. We're only 40 minutes from the NCAA tournament.''

JMU, a double-overtime winner over East Carolina in the quarterfinals, is an improbable finalist this time around. The Dukes limped into the tournament having lost six of their last eight.

UNC Wilmington (16-14), the second seed, had won eight of its last 10 and swept both regular-season games with JMU.

But JMU took a big lead with blistering long-range shooting and won in spite of wilting under a UNC Wilmington full-court press in the final 13:10, in which the Dukes committed nine turnovers and did not have a field goal.

``At the end of the game it was like they had eight guys on the court,'' said JMU forward Chatney Howard, who led the first-half charge with five 3-point shots and had 22 points.

JMU, the league's worst free-throw shooting team, won by making all of its 14 foul shots, including eight in the final 13:10.

``We made some mistakes,'' said Driesell as he wiped sweat from his brow. ``But we did the job at the end when it counted.''

It was a big day in many ways for the Driesell family. Chuck Driesell, the assistant coach and son of Lefty, hurriedly drove to Harrisonburg Saturday to watch his first son be born at 12:19 p.m. He returned just in time for the opening tipoff.

Luke Charles Driesell - weighing in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces - is Lefty's first grandson.

``I tried for 35 years to have a grandson,'' Lefty said. ``I told our guys I would remember this day for the rest of my life if I live to be 100, and I wanted to remember winning.

``I'll remember we played great the day he was born.''

RICHMOND - Lefty Driesell will have yet another chance tonight to take his James Madison University Dukes to the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Dukes nearly blew a 19-point, second-half lead, but emerged with a 60-57 victory over UNC Wilmington Sunday when Stan Simmons' 3-point shot rimmed out at the buzzer in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.

It will be the sixth CAA championship game appearance for JMU in nine years under Driesell. The Dukes have won one - in 1994, when a last-second Kent Culuko shot beat ODU 77-76.

``Old Dominion has a great team and manhandled us the last time we played them (72-66 in Norfolk),'' said Driesell, the 65-year-old Norfolk native. ``But we'll get after them.''