
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 2, 1993                   TAG: 9312020118
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

RADFORD CAN'T QUITE CATCH VCU

Radford certainly does not want to think of itself as a little brother to the big boys of Division I basketball in the state.

In a 70-64 loss to highly regarded Virginia Commonwealth on Wednesday night, the Highlanders were peskier and hung around longer than a precocious younger sibling.

Radford (1-2), trying to duplicate its miraculous 72-71 victory over VCU (2-0) when these teams last met two years ago, trimmed an 11-point second-half deficit to four, 62-58, on a Don Burgess 3-pointer with 1 minute, 38 seconds left.

But the Rams' Terrence Gibson hit a pair of free throws and Tyron McCoy got a breakaway layup to put away the Highlanders.

"I thought they outplayed us," said Sonny Smith, VCU's coach. "Give Radford credit. If we're going to be anywhere near the team people think we're going to be, we've got to play as hard as teams like Radford do."

The Highlanders, who lost 89-75 at Richmond on Monday and are 0-10 in games in the state capital, played especially hard in the second half, when they outscored the Rams 42-37 and shot 58.6 percent (17-for-29) from the floor.

\ see microfilm for box score

by CNB