THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 21, 1995 TAG: 9502210403
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENVILLE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Old Dominion's basketball team staved off a late East Carolina rally for an 81-73 victory at Williams Arena that was perhaps the Monarchs' most significant road victory this season.
The significance was twofold.
The Monarchs (16-11, 11-2 Colonial Athletic Association) have a virtual hammerlock on the CAA regular season title and No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament in Richmond. ODU has a 1 1/2-game lead over James Madison and UNC Wilmington, and can clinch the title at home Saturday in the regular-season finale against fifth-place William and Mary.
ODU is 10-1 on its home court this season, with its only loss coming to then-top ranked North Carolina.
The other significant factor was psychological. The Monarchs led by 11 with 6:42 to play Saturday at UNC Wilmington and lost. Monday, they led by 10 with 4:56 remaining, and East Carolina scrapped back to trail by two with 26.5 seconds left before ODU pulled it out.
``It was a big win,'' said ODU forward Mario Mullen, who had career highs of 27 points and five blocked shots. ``We needed this one after the loss a couple days ago. This one is our stepping-stone to a championship.''
``I'm proud of our kids being mentally tough when things looked like they were not going our way,'' ODU coach Jeff Capel said. ``We've won a lot of games, but we've not won any games on the road as big as this.''
ODU built a 10-point lead thanks to torrid second-half shooting (73.9 percent) that led to the Monarchs' best field goal shooting night of the season (60.4 percent). Mullen made 10 of 11 field goals, while center David Harvey went 7 of 8 for 15 points and matched his career high with 10 rebounds.
``Basically we got whipped,'' Pirates coach Eddie Payne said. ``ODU's penetration killed us. You look at the shooting percentages, and it's amazing we had a chance to win the game.''
The Pirates (16-10, 6-7) did, thanks largely to 15 offensive rebounds that led to numerous second-chance baskets. Overall, ODU did a good job on the boards against the Pirates, the league's top rebounding team. ECU had a 31-28 edge Monday.
``Wilmington's big men had real good games against us,'' Harvey said. ``Me and Petey (Sessoms) and Mario wanted to go out and show we're the best front court in the CAA.''
After the Monarchs took a 68-58 lead on Mike Jones' bank shot with 4:56 left, the Pirates made their next five shots to cut the margin to 72-69 with 1:38 to play.
``Late in the game, I emphasized to my teammates we're playing to win tonight, not playing not to lose,'' Harvey said. ``That wasn't going to happen tonight.''
Mullen was called for a charging foul with 1:09 left and ECU had back-to-back possessions in which it could have tied the game with a 3-pointer. But Jones stole a pass on the first one, and Anton Gill missed a 3-pointer on the next one.
That made ECU resort to fouling. Brion Dunlap missed the front end of a one-and-one with 47.5 seconds left, but the Monarchs made 7 of 8 in the game's final 32.9 seconds, with Sessoms (17 points) hitting five of them.
Sessoms' two biggest free throws came with 26.5 seconds left, after a Skipp Schaefbauer 3-pointer from way beyond the arc sliced ODU's lead to two points.
Sessoms and Jones combined for 28 points, almost 11 under their combined average. But the big guys came through and got a lot of easy baskets off Monarch penetration moves.
ODU's interior players also held the Pirates' vaunted post players - Anton Gill (13 points) and Chuckie Robinson (12 points) - almost four points shy apiece of their season scoring averages. by CNB