THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511120293
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
Since the Old Dominion men's basketball team opened its preseason, those surrounding the program have speculated about which highly-touted freshman - Reggie Bassette or Skipper Youngblood - would redshirt.
Coach Jeff Capel put an end to the wait even before the Monarchs tipped off Saturday's exhibition game against the all-star Court Authority team.
Capel surprised everyone by throwing both players into the starting lineup, effectively ending any chance of either sitting out their freshman year.
``Ideally I'd like to have redshirted both. We've got strength in the post, and they're too good to play just 3-4 minutes a game,'' said Capel. ``But I don't make that decision without the input of the player, and both vehemently did not want to redshirt.
``Once I saw that, the decision was easy.''
Youngblood, especially, showed Capel how much he wanted to play for the Monarchs with his performance against Court Authority, blocking five shots and scoring 13 points as ODU rallied for an 84-78 win.
The Monarchs started the game abysmally, falling behind 11-1 with a starting lineup of three freshmen - Bassette, Youngblood, and Mark Poag - in the frontcourt, and Duffy Samuels and E.J. Sherod at guard.
The team trailed by as much as 21 points, 31-10, midway through the half.
``I'm really not sure why we start slowly, but we did the same thing last year,'' Capel said. ``We just have problems getting out of the gate.
In the second half, the Monarchs steadily chipped away at the lead and drew to within one, 54-53, on Odell Hodge's layup with 15:23 left.
Court Authority pulled away to lead by seven, but Youngblood brought the Monarchs back within a point two times, first on a dunk midway through the half and again on two free throws with 7:01 remaining.
Joe Bunn gave ODU the lead for good with a layup at the 4:52 mark, and the Monarchs held off Court Authority down the stretch for a 6-point victory.
Bunn led the team in scoring for the third straight game with 18 points. Hodge added 15 with 14 rebounds, and Sherod scored 13 points with perfect shooting from the field, including three 3-pointers.
``It's hard for me to imagine that we can come back from 20 points down to a team with that much experience,'' Capel said. ``If we can play uptempo like the second half, we're going to need to be two deep in the post.'' by CNB