ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 TAG: 9702110105
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
The Virginia Tech men's basketball team may have given away its postseason hopes on the floor of the CoreStates Spectrum on Monday night.
In a game that could come back to haunt them next month, the Hokies suffered a damaging 59-56 loss to Atlantic 10 Conference lightweight La Salle.
In dropping to 13-10 overall and 6-5 in the A-10, the Hokies left the City of Brotherly Love in a foul mood for more reasons than one.
Tech was victimized by atrocious free-throw shooting (13-for-24). Plus, the Hokies thought David Jackson was fouled by La Salle's Donnie Carr on a 3-point attempt that would have tied the score as the final horn sounded.
Down 59-56 with 6.6 seconds left, Jim Jackson rebounded Mike Gizzi's missed free-throw attempt and fired the ball upcourt to his brother. David Jackson caught the ball, took one long dribble and went up for a 3 from the top of the key. As Jackson went up for the shot, he got caught in Carr's arms and wound up flinging the ball wildly toward the hoop.
After the horn sounded, Tech coach Bill Foster charged several steps onto the court in the direction of the officials.
Did Foster think Jackson had been fouled?
``There was no thinking about it, he was fouled,'' Foster said. ``Those guys [the officials] were running around like the three blind mice out there.''
After the game, Carr, who was held to a season-low 13 points, confessed to the crime.
``Truthfully,'' said a smiling Carr, ``I absolutely hammered him.''
The Hokies wouldn't have been in such a predicament if they'd made some free-throw attempts and Troy Manns hadn't committed a huge defensive blunder with 17.6 seconds left.
With Tech trailing 55-54 after Shawn Browne's offensive rebound basket, La Salle set up to inbounds the ball against the Tech press. In a set play, inbounder Mike Gizzi threw the ball to teammate Steve Fromal, who had retreated from the court and moved out of bounds.
When Fromal took the pass, Manns, in a reactive move, batted the ball from Fromal's hands - an automatic technical foul.
Gizzi, shooting the technical free throws, canned both to put La Salle up 57-54.
La Salle (8-12, 3-7) got the ball back on the technical and got another point when reserve Mike Melchionni was fouled with 12.1 seconds left and made one of two free-throw attempts.
Manns hit a running 8-footer with 7.8 seconds left to cut it to 58-56. Gizzi, fouled with 6.6 seconds left, made the first free-throw try. He missed the second, leading to David Jackson's misadventure with Carr.
Manns was quick to take the blame for the loss, which ended Tech's three-game winning streak.
``I blew it,'' the Roanoke native said. ``I messed up. Put the blame on me. I'm big enough to take it. As a senior, I'm supposed to know better.''
Gizzi, whose 19 points led the Explorers, said he thought Manns might bite on the play.
``That's a play you don't see happen too much,'' Gizzi said. ``I could see Manns leaning on Steve. Steve kept coming toward the line and so did Manns. I gave Steve the ball when he was over the line and Manns touched the ball.''
La Salle, which played without starting guard Shawn Smith (flu), took advantage of six 3-pointers to lead 34-28 at halftime over the seemingly unenthused Hokies.
Tech, which was led by Keefe Matthews' 16 points, scored the opening six points of the second half to tie the score at 34. While La Salle didn't score in the second half until Carr's 3-pointer with 14:24 left, Tech couldn't take advantage.
``They don't get a basket for five minutes and we can't take the lead,'' Foster said. ``Then we start missing free throws. We were atrocious. We can't afford to miss anything that's got free stuck in front of it.''
There won't be any ``free'' postseason bids for Tech. Foster said a couple weeks ago he thought his club could get an NIT bid with 16 victories. This was supposed to be one of the 16. La Salle had lost seven straight games before Monday.
The Hokies have six games left and will be a solid favorite in only one - Duquesne at home. Saturday's game at Dayton will be a tossup, but Tech will be an underdog to Temple at home, at George Washington, Virginia in Richmond and Xavier at home.
``Now,'' said Foster, ``we've got to suck it up and get one we're not supposed to get.''
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 linesby CNB