ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 2, 1996 TAG: 9604020092
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N. J.
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
Kentucky could have known, after winning one NCAA championship in the previous 38 years, that another title would not come easily.
The Wildcats, with the weight of the college basketball world seemingly on their shoulders, needed all 40 minutes to subdue a game Syracuse team 76-67 on Monday night at the Meadowlands Arena.
It was the first championship for heavily favored Kentucky during the seven-year Rick Pitino coaching era and the first since 1978 for the Wildcats, who claimed four titles between 1948-58.
``With 45 seconds left, the fans started chanting `SEC, SEC,' and I told them to stop,'' Pitino said. ``I haven't celebrated for three weeks, but, let me tell you, the town's going to get painted tonight.''
Senior Tony Delk scored 24 points and freshman forward Ron Mercer added 20 - his season high - to offset a brilliant performance by Syracuse senior John Wallace.
Wallace had 29 points and 10 rebounds before fouling out with 1:06 remaining and the Orangemen trailing 72-67. Syracuse, a 14-point underdog, failed to score on its last four possessions.
``Personally, I felt we got a couple of bad calls,'' said Wallace, who had not fouled out in the Orangemen's first 37 games. ``It was a bad feeling to foul out and leave the team hanging like that. I definitely felt we could still win the game.''
Syracuse trailed 59-50 following a four-point play by Delk with 11:12 remaining, but Wallace and Todd Burgan led a comeback that cut the deficit to 64-62 on a pair of Wallace free throws with 4:46 left.
The Wildcats subsequently went on an 8-2 run, including a pair of follow shots by Walter McCarty and Mark Pope and a 3-pointer by Derek Anderson, who was frantically waving his arms on the left wing before his teammates got him the ball.
Kentucky shot 38.4 percent - the lowest field-goal percentage by the winning team since the 1963 championship game - but the Wildcats were 12-of-27 (44.4 percent) on 3-pointers. Delk made six in the first half and seven overall.
``We didn't do a good job with Delk in the first half,'' Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. ``The second half, we found him and did a much better job. But, Mercer was the one guy who came in and hurt us.''
Mercer, who went scoreless and played only six minutes in the Midwest Regional final, scored 11 points Monday night in the final 6:31 of the first half. The Wildcats, who trailed 25-23 at one point, went into the break ahead 42-33.
``I thought we did a good job of attacking from the first second to the last,'' Pitino said. ``We kept getting eight-foot shots all night, but that may be the toughest shot in basketball. When you can shoot 38 percent and win, you know you're playing great defense.''
Syracuse shot 50 percent from the field, but the Orangemen committed 24 turnovers - up from five in their semifinal victory over Mississippi State. Syracuse point guard Lazarus Sims, who had no turnovers against the Bulldogs, committed seven against Kentucky.
``What we wanted to do more than anything else is cut off the head and the body will fail,'' Pitino said. ``We had to get to Sims, make him tired, get him exhausted and get him working. We had to cut off the interior, but we had to pressure him.''
Sims was in obvious pain after a collision with Mercer with 13:38 remaining, but he returned to the game with 12:09 left. His left wrist and forearm were wrapped in a bandage and covered with tape, and he badly missed several late 3-pointers.
``It's a bruise,'' Boeheim said, ``either a bad bruise or a bad sprain. I'm not sure, honestly, what it was. But he was going to go back in and play. He's got the heart of a lion and he's had an unbelievable year leading this team.
``I told [the players] in the locker room that too much is made of `you lost the game.' They didn't lose anything to me. And they should be as proud as Kentucky is.''
Boeheim said some of the same things in a postgame telephone conversation with President Clinton. The Orangemen, who lost six of nine games during one midseason stretch, wound up 29-9.
Kentucky (34-2) was ranked No. 1 before the season and was favored to win every game. All that did was heighten expectations for a program that has won more games than any in the history of basketball and for a coach who had no championships to validate an otherwise outstanding record.
``There's nothing like this,'' said Pitino, who inherited a program on NCAA probation. ``To go from the shame when I took over to the national championship - and doing it by the strictest of rules - makes us all very, very proud.''
see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. AP Kentucky players Walter McCarty (40), Ron Mercerby CNB(33) and Derek Anderson (23) join their teammates in celebrating the
Wildcats' victory over Syracuse in the NCAA championship basketball
game. color
2. AP Syracuse guard Lazarus Sims (center) tries to get between
Kentucky defenders Anthony Epps (left) and Ron Mercer, but loses
control of the ball.
3. AP Kentucky coach Rick Pitino and Anthony Epps put their heads
together to discuss strategy in the second half. Type first letter of feature OR type help for list of commands FIND S-DB DB OPT SS WRD QUIT QUIT Save options? YES NO GROUP YOU'VE SELECTED: QUIT NO login: c