ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 24, 1996 TAG: 9612240095
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: STORRS, CONN.
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
As Christmas presents go, it wasn't exactly a lump of coal.
Virginia, beaten by 41 and 30 points in its past two meetings with Connecticut, took the Huskies into overtime Monday night before falling 64-61 at Gampel Pavilion.
``In all honesty, I feel better about our basketball team in this loss than we have in the last two wins,'' said Jeff Jones, UVa's coach. ``I told our team that if we continue to play this hard - not that we were great - that we should be all right.''
The Cavaliers (6-3) were without their leading scorer, Courtney Alexander, sidelined by a sprained ankle for the second game in a row. They were facing a UConn team that has won 50 of its past 51 games at its two ``home'' arenas, Gampel and the Hartford Civic Center. It was the first time the teams have played at Gampel, built partly through the efforts of UVa president John Casteen, who was the UConn president when funding for the on-campus arena was approved.
A crowd of 10,027 watched the Cavaliers take an 8-0 lead to start the game, fall behind by as many as nine points in the second half, then rally and get a shot to win the game in regulation.
``We'd never lost in overtime before,'' said UVa captain Jamal Robinson, a senior. ``That was the first thing I told the team in the huddle as we got ready to go back out there.''
Indeed, the Cavaliers had not lost a road overtime game since 1988 in a highly improbable 14-game streak. Virginia had won 18 of its past 20 overtime games overall, including 11 in a row.
It appeared Virginia had an edge when Curtis Staples made a 3-pointer to put the Cavaliers ahead 56-53 nine seconds into overtime, but that was followed by what many considered the turning point in the game.
Connecticut freshman Richard Hamilton took a shot, missed, got his rebound and missed again. Twice more the Huskies got the offensive rebound before the ball went back outside to Hamilton, who hit a 3-pointer to make it 56-56.
``I couldn't tell how many shots it was,'' Jones said. ``And Hamilton didn't look really confident when he put the ball up the last time, but, if you keep shooting, eventually the ball is going to find the basket.''
The Cavaliers never led again, although they got as close as 62-61 when Harold Deane hit a runner in the lane with 14.1 seconds remaining. The Cavaliers, down three, had called a timeout after two missed UConn free throws with 19.8 seconds left.
``We told them that we really needed to look for a 3,'' Jones said, ``but we felt that there was enough time, if we took it to the basket, that we could score, foul right away and have a shot at a desperation 3 at the end.''
It might not have taken a 3-pointer, except that Rashamel Jones hit a pair of free throws with 7.5 seconds remaining. The UConn guard had missed his only previous free throw and the Huskies were 9-of-17 from the line until that point.
UConn (6-2) shot 33.8 percent from the field, compared with 38.3 for Virginia. The Huskies overcame a bad start to come close to UVa in the rebounding battle (46-43) and had eight fewer turnovers.
The Cavaliers got game highs of 17 points and 14 rebounds from junior forward Norman Nolan, who also hit seven of 10 free throws despite entering the game as a 32 percent free-throw shooter for the season.
Nolan and 7-foot-4 sophomore Chase Metheney did not start for the first time this season as Jones went with freshman Colin Ducharme and transfer Monte Marcaccini in an attempt to give his team a spark after listless performances in victories over Liberty and Maryland-Baltimore County.
Ducharme blocked a Kirkland King jumper on the first possession of the game, then hit a jump hook at the other end of the floor. He made his first five shots and finished with 11 points and five rebounds in 28 minutes.
``A step forward,'' said Robinson as the Cavaliers prepared for a five-day Christmas break. ``I think, with Courtney and Craig [McAndrew], we would have been all right. It would have made it easier.''
In the absence of Alexander, who made the call not to play, and McAndrew, who has two games remaining in a seven-game NCAA imposed suspension, the Cavaliers used eight players. One of those, Metheney, was on the floor for only five minutes.
``I've been here for the games the last two years and I can tell you we were embarrassed,'' Nolan said. ``We may have let this slip away tonight, but I think they have a little more respect for us now.'' see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Connecticut's Kevin Freeman (15) pulls a reboundby CNBaway from Virginia's Colin Ducharme (52) as Ricky Moore and Curtis
Staples look on during their game Monday in Storrs, Conn. color