Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993 TAG: 9301210135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
TECH WOMEN TOP RADFORD
Christi Osborne's personal shoot-around session Wednesday night gave the Virginia Tech women's basketball team all it needed to dump Radford 81-68 at Cassell Coliseum.Radford cut a 15-point first-half deficit to six with 5:28 left but then temporarily abandoned Osborne.
"I hit uncontested jump shots," the sophomore forward said.
Four, to be exact, in a 3 1/2-minute stretch, during which Tech built a 13-point lead. The Hokies led by 19 in the second half and wobbled only when Radford's press rattled Tech's reserves late in the game.
A 15-2 run pulled the Highlanders to 74-68 with 1:42 left, but the Hokies' regulars came back in and made seven of 12 free throws to preserve the victory before 467 spectators.
Osborne - and the Hokies' pressure defense - helped hold Radford's top scorer, Shannan Wilkey, to seven points on 2-for-8 shooting.
Radford made 29 percent of its field-goal attempts, the 11th straight game Tech has held opponent to less than 43.8 percent.
Radford went nearly eight minutes without a field goal in one first-half stretch, then went 5:13 without a field goal in the second half.
"They played very aggressively," Wilkey said. "At the beginning, we were very tentative. We haven't had teams pressure us as much as Virginia Tech. It opened my eyes."
The Hokies (12-3) have won eight straight at Cassell Coliseum, tying a school record, and 10 of their past 11 games overall.
Tech took a 12-11 lead in the all-time series by winning for the 10th time in its past 12 tries against Radford (4-7).
"I don't think we played great, and we still scored 81 points," said Tech coach Carol Alfano, whose 15-year record at Tech crept to a game short of .500 at 203-204. "We lacked a little intensity; we were sloppy.
"[But we're] preaching rebounding and defense."
Radford outrebounded Tech 39-33, but the Highlanders' kinetic coach, Lubomyr Lichonczak, was more active than his team's offense.
Tech's spotty offense isn't a big deal if the defense is OK, Osborne said. She says the Hokies, who were 10-18 last year, aren't giddy about the best 15-game record in school history.
"We realize if we play to our potential, we can do a lot of things people didn't expect us to do," Osborne said.
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