Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 5, 1994 TAG: 9403050192
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
\ For more than a half, Radford University's basketball team looked very much like a party that had been served a batch of bad oysters.
The sluggish behavior mirrored a pattern seen twice before in Friday's opening round of the Big South Conference tournament, as higher-seeded teams looked ill early in their games at the North Charleston Coliseum.
But the Highlanders took the correct medicine and, feeling rosy-cheeked again, beat Maryland-Baltimore County 81-78 to advance to a semifinal tonight.
As has often been the case with Radford (20-7) this season, the correct prescription called for senior leadership. Tyrone Travis and Don Burgess filled it.
Travis scored a game-high 25 points to go with nine rebounds and five blocks, and Burgess had 21 points, six rebounds and three blocks.
When the Highlanders seemed curiously adrift, it was Travis who went to work.
"This is my last go-round," he said. "And that means not holding back. If that means getting up in people's faces, then I'll do it."
Radford next plays second-seeded Campbell, which slipped past Winthrop 79-71, in an 8:30 nightcap. Top-seeded Towson State, which like Campbell and Radford seemed mired in quicksand at times in a 64-56 victory over North Carolina-Asheville, meets Liberty in the first game.
Radford produced the game's 13th and last lead change by means of a Travis 3-pointer with 6 minutes, 35 seconds left. It's a disconcerting sight when the center shoots from that distance and Travis made light of it.
"I know Coach [Ron Bradley] cringes when I spot up and take the 3," he said, "but their big guys were sagging back inside and leaving me open."
Actually, Bradley said he urged Travis to take the bomb under those circumstances. Why not? He'd been making them and finished 4-for-5 from beyond the stripe, 8-for-10 overall.
Burgess also had a sharp eye, making seven of 13 field-goal attempts.
"It was a case of seniors stepping forward," said Earl Hawkins, UMBC's coach.
The Retrievers had mechanical difficulties during the ride down from Maryland on Thursday and were delayed 18 hours, but Hawkins didn't mention that until somebody else brought it up.
"No excuses," he said. "They just beat us."
Radford was all out of sorts to start the game. In the first five minutes, the Highlanders had five turnovers - mainly lack-of-concentration stuff - and took only two shots, both of which were off.
The Retrievers' Skip Saunders, meanwhile, was burying 3-pointers, a trio of them in the first 4:10. The third of those put UMBC up 11-2.
Radford ran off the next seven points to get back into the game.
"I don't know why we were so flat," Bradley said. "I'd thought we'd had a good week of practice." \
see microfilm for box score
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.