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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 5, 1994                   TAG: 9403050040
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE, HAMPDEN-SYDNEY MEET AGAIN IN NCAA

Roanoke College and Hampden-Sydney were supposed to meet Feb. 26 in the championship game of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament. After all, they were the top seeds. But Guilford rewrote the script by knocking off the Tigers in the first round.

Now, the stakes are higher as the Maroons prepare to face Hampden-Sydney at 7:30 p.m. today at the Bast Center in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.

The winner of tonight's South Region matchup will advance to the round of 16 and travel to meet an opponent from the West Region.

"It's the matchup that never materialized from the ODAC tournament," said Roanoke's Page Moir, who is coaching in his first NCAA Tournament. "In a lot of ways I'm glad to see it happen. [Hampden-Sydney] is very deserving."

The Maroons (26-1), who had a bye in the first round, beat Hampden-Sydney twice during the regular season, 91-88 and 86-81. Is Moir concerned about the third time being the charm for the Tigers?

"That's an old coaching adage that we're going to try to prove wrong," he said. "Both games were good games, better from a spectator's standpoint. But I definitely think we're very capable of beating them a third time."

Hampden-Sydney (21-5) earned the right to face Roanoke by winning a first-round game 91-79 over Oglethorpe on Thursday in Atlanta. The Tigers flew back to Virginia on Friday and will bus to Salem this afternoon.

Roanoke will focus much of its defensive efforts on containing Hampden-Sydney big men Nate Schwab and Jason Leonard, who combined for 49 points against the Stormy Petrels (20-6). Schwab, a first-team All-ODAC and second-team All-South Region selection, is averaging 18.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. Leonard is averaging 14.2 points and 9.2 rebounds.

"They've got some people who can shoot from the perimeter, but a huge key is you can't let the big guys go crazy on you," Moir said.

The Maroons have had a week off after playing some of their best basketball of the season during the ODAC tournament. Roanoke shot 55.6 percent from the floor, 45.2 percent from 3-point range and 78.2 percent from the free-throw line in its three victories.

"All week we've concentrated on keeping the enthusiasm up," Moir said. "But it's pretty easy to do for these games. This is what all of them have been dreaming about since they were kids."

Hilliary Scott, the ODAC's player of the year, said the Maroons planned to play intense defense and let the offense take care of itself.

"The first game against [Hampden-Sydney], we came out playing good defense from the tap," he said. "The second game we started out kind of slow, but picked up the defense when we needed it. That's probably key, but we need to be consistent."

Scott is averaging 19.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game for the Maroons. Bryant Lee adds 16.1 points and nine rebounds per game.

Tickets for the game are $5 for adults and $3 for children 12 and younger and adults 60 and older.

by CNB