Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991 TAG: 9103100218
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Florida State, in its last Metro game, added the "Emergency Ward" to league lore Saturday night at the Roanoke Civic Center.
The Seminoles won their first Metro Tournament championship in their sixth title-game appearance when point guard Charlie Ward punctuated a remarkable comeback with a 26-foot bomb that wiped out Louisville's run of 45 straight winning seasons.
FSU clinched its third NCAA Tournament berth in four years with a 76-69 victory in the 16th Metro championship game. Ward's prayer from above the key - with the game clock at :22 and the shot clock at :03 - snapped a 69-69 tie.
It also completed a Seminoles comeback from a 56-36 deficit against the Cardinals (14-16), who came into the tournament as the last-place seed and upset regular-season champ Southern Mississippi and Memphis State to make their 11th Metro title-game appearance.
"It was an incredible gut check by our guys," FSU coach Pat Kennedy said. "Part of our motivation came from the networks. When they talked about the championship game [Saturday], they never mentioned Florida State. They only talked about Louisville."
They would have kept talking about the Cardinals if coach Denny Crum's team had completed its startling start. Louisville had a 20-point lead with under 16 minutes to play, but was outscored 40-13 to the finish.
As crucial as Ward's hoop from beyond the arc was, the FSU backup football quarterback's defense on Louisville star LaBradford Smith, who did everything but engrave the championship trophy in a 20-point first half.
"He took over the game," Kennedy said.
In the second half, FSU pushed out its defense to try and diminish Smith and Louisville wing shooter Everick Sullivan as factors. Kennedy switched defenders on Smith throughout the half, using Aubry Boyd, Chuck Graham and Ward to limit the Cards' senior to four points in the final 17 minutes.
With Sullivan missing shots and Smith's leadership diminished by FSU's body language, Louisville's offense was reduced to free-throw shooting. In the last 12 minutes, the Cards got off only 10 shots from the floor.
"I don't know what we shot in the last 10 minutes," Crum said. "Ten percent? Twenty percent? I do know it wasn't very good."
In its final 15 possessions, Louisville sagged from a 63-53 lead with 2-of-8 field-goal accuracy and five turnovers.
It also didn't help that Louisville center Cornelius Holden got poked in the eye and lost the ball with less than four minutes left. Holden's left eye was swollen shut because of a corneal abrasion.
"We got more physical with LaBradford," Kennedy said of Smith, voted the tournament's top player for the second straight year. "You've got to do that. I think we also hurt him by getting more pressure on the others."
FSU, headed for the ACC next season, tied it at 69 on Graham's two free throws with 1:30 left. That was the first tie since 15-15 after 6 1/2 minutes.
With 1:06 remaining, Smith's left-side jumper caromed away right, and the Seminoles rebounded and began running the offense and the shot clock while looking for an isolation set down low.
Ward, with Smith backed off a few steps expecting a drive, dribbled the time away until he looked up and saw :07 on the shot clock. He cocked and fired.
Nothing but net.
"If I didn't have any confidence in my shooting ability, I wouldn't have shot the ball," said Ward, a sophomore who came into the game shooting 27.5 percent from 3-point range. "It wasn't a desperate shot or anything."
But it was a desperation shot that ended Louisville's surprising bid for its ninth Metro tournament title.
On its last possession, Louisville wanted to go to Sullivan for a 3-point bid to tie. The ball never got there, because freshman Tremaine Wingfield lost it on the right side of the lane to FSU's Douglas Edwards.
Edwards' two free throws and the ensuing possession after a Louisville intentional foul were the finishing touches.
"It's nice to be off the [NCAA Tournament] bubble," grinned Kennedy, whose team should get a good seed when the field of 64 is announced this evening. FSU has won 10 of its past 11 games and its schedule includes Nevada-Las Vegas, Arkansas and Syracuse.
Florida State scored the game's last 12 points, starting that run with Graham's 3-pointer from the right wing to cut the deficit to two with 2:30 left.
"Give them credit," Crum said. "They hit two 3-pointers down the stretch. If they don't go in, it's different. They went in. That's the way life is."
see microfilm for box score
by CNB