THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603030218
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Jeff Capel ordinarily disdains junk defenses, but he likes them a little better this morning.
Old Dominion's switch to a triangle-and-two defense and forward Joe Bunn's career-high 33 points lifted the Monarchs to a 75-72 Colonial Athletic Association tournament victory over James Madison at the Richmond Coliseum. ODU will play UNC-Wilmington, a 63-55 winner over William and Mary, in a tournament semifinal tonight at 6.
The Monarchs (18-12) had not played a triangle-and-two all season, although they had practiced it earlier in the year. Capel said about a week ago he saw Georgia Tech using it successfully on TV, and decided to work on it in practice.
``I said, `We may need something in the tournament we don't have,' '' Capel said.
Six minutes into the second half, second-seeded ODU was down six and needed something. James Madison guard Darren McLinton (34 points, tying the tournament record) was killing the Monarchs, both with his shot and penetration moves to open things up for his teammates. Old Dominion called time with 13:36 to play and put in the triangle.
``It's kind of odd,'' ODU's Duffy Samuels said of pulling out a new tool 30 games into the season, ``but you've gotta do what you've gotta do to win.''
The seventh-seeded Dukes (10-20) made one of their next 10 field goal tries as ODU ripped off a 17-5 run over the next 8 1/2 minutes to go ahead by six. The triangle-and-two enabled whoever was guarding McLinton to get help out high in the defense as soon as McLinton started to drive.
``It was definitely a big key for us,'' Capel said. ``We had to do something to change our look.''
The other big key was Bunn, who made 9 of 13 from the field and 15 of 15 from the line, breaking the tournament record of 14 by Navy's David Robinson and tying the free-throw accuracy mark. It was also an ODU record for the most free throws made in a game without a miss.
``We couldn't stop Bunn and they couldn't stop McLinton,'' JMU coach Lefty Driesell said. ``It was like the shootout at the OK Corral.''
McLinton had the last shot, but misfired.
He rattled off 12 points in the final five minutes to keep JMU in the game, including a 3-pointer with 2:28 remaining that cut ODU's lead to 70-66. It was still a four-point lead when Samuels missed a bank shot with 41 seconds left.
JMU's James Coleman made a 10-foot baseline jumper with 32 seconds left to cut it to 74-72. With 15.9 seconds remaining the Dukes fouled Brion Dunlap, who scored all seven of his points in the final seven minutes. But he made just one of two free throws.
McLinton's 3-pointer with 7.5 seconds left was off the mark.
``I was a little off balance,'' McLinton said. ``I shot it too early. I should have taken the time to get set. It was like trying to hit a moving target.''
Samuels came up with the ball and streaked downcourt, and ODU celebrated as if it had just earned an NCAA tournament bid - which has been at stake the last three times these teams met in this tournament. Bunn punched the air at midcourt, then went down and high-fived fans in the student section.
``I was happy when we got the win, and when I'm happy I've got to show it,'' Bunn said.
Driesell said the Dukes are just as good as ODU.
``I'd love to play them again tomorrow,'' Driesell said. ``I think we'd beat them. They got the breaks today, and we didn't.
``We started out 1-10 in the league and we're as good as anyone in the league at the end.''
Bunn - who started for the first time since December - in particular was impressive down on the block. He has averaged 21.6 points over his last eight games. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Joe Bunn of Old Dominion, who scored a career-high 33 points for Old
Dominion, shows he can play defense against Madison, too.
by CNB