ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 14, 1996 TAG: 9601150102
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
After 10 mostly snow-covered days with no basketball, it figured Radford University's team would be a little out of whack.
And that was before visiting Winthrop started whacking the Highlanders with ``junk'' defenses.
The Highlanders' offense froze at the switch down the stretch as the Eagles held on for a 70-66 upset Saturday night at the Dedmon Center, ruining Radford's Big South Conference opener.
For Winthrop (3-10 overall, 2-0 Big South), it was a delicious victory that snapped a four-game skid against the Highlanders. The Eagles had lost 11 of their past 12 meetings with Radford (6-7, 0-1).
The mood in the Highlanders' locker room was one of shock and despair.
``Coach [Ron] Bradley told us that he was to blame, that he didn't have us prepared, but he has no blame here,'' said Radford guard Anthony Walker. ``This was our blame. We don't play in two weeks - this doesn't make any sense, we just played terrible.''
The Highlanders had only five field-goal attempts in the last 3:19 as they flailed against the shifting Eagles.
``They were going box-and-one, triangle-and-two, zone, man-[to-man] ... they were jumping around and switching and we couldn't pick it up,'' said Walker, who scored nine of his team's last 11 points on the way to 20 for the game. ``That was the key to the game.''
Just as important as Walker was for Radford, so was Winthrop sophomore Andrew McFalls, who in only the second start of his career had his fourth consecutive double-figure scoring game. McFalls finished with a game-high 26 points.
``We had a talk at Christmas and he asked me, `Why aren't I playing more?''' said Winthrop coach Dan Kenney, relating a conversation he had with the 6-foot-7 forward. ``And I told him that he didn't take his game seriously, that he didn't take himself seriously. I told him that once he did, he could start becoming the type of player that he was capable of being.''
Radford looked like a team that hadn't played in a while for the first 20 minutes. That, of course, was the case; the last game for the Highlanders was the 65-64 upset of Duquesne on Jan.3.
Radford struggled mightily with its shooting, which isn't like the Highlanders. For the half, their field-goal percentage was 38.2 (13-of-34). By game's end, Radford had edged its accuracy up to 42.6 percent.
Tyson Waterman, the freshman who was leading the Eagles in scoring with a 10.5-point average coming in, showed what he can do by making half his shots - including two of four from 3-point range on the way to 10 points by the break. Before fouling out, he had 14 to go with eight rebounds.
McFalls took over to start the second half, scoring 10 of his team's first 19 points. McFalls hadn't so much as started for Winthrop until the previous game, a 68-62 loss to The Citadel. Now this.
McFalls was sound down the stretch, too, draining a big 3-pointer to tie the score at 62 with 3:51 to play, then dropping a pair of free throws through with 53 seconds to give the Eagles a 68-64 lead.
see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB