THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 9, 1996 TAG: 9603090584
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: GREENSBORO LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Jeff Jones admitted that if he ``had any sense,'' he would feel some relief that a disappointing season for his Virginia Cavaliers ended Friday night with a 70-60 loss to Wake Forest in the ACC tournament.
``But,'' Jones added, tears filling his eyes, ``I wish we still had more games to play.''
That is not to be, however. The Cavaliers' first quarterfinals loss since 1992 left them nowhere to go but home to Charlottesville.
They finished the season 12-15, giving Jones his first losing record in six years as head coach. It was Virginia's first losing record since 1988 - also the last time it failed to qualify for postseason play.
Virginia came into the tournament needing to win all three games for its first title since 1976 to secure an NCAA tournament bid.
With 8:15 left, the Cavaliers were still chasing that dream while trailing the 12th-ranked Deacons (21-5) by only four points.
Then they were consumed by one of those mysterious scoreless slumps that had sunk other opportunities during the season. They failed to score a point during a five-minute stretch as the Deacons pumped the lead to 59-43 and began making plans for today's semifinals.
``We just went into a dry spell when no one seemed able to hit a shot,'' said freshman Courtney Alexander, who finished with 14 points, but none in the final 8:41.
The Cavaliers had beaten Wake Forest 67-49 only two weeks ago in Charlottesville. But in that game they had their best shooting night of the season - 60.5 percent from the floor.
Friday, the Cavaliers shot 40.7 percent and failed to contain All-American center Tim Duncan, who finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds and six blocked shots.
Wake Forest's only weakness was a lack of outside shooting, but that was solved when sophomore Steven Goolsby came off the bench to hit a trio of 3-pointers in the second half. Two came back-to-back during a 12-0 run that broke open the game with four minutes remaining.
``Some of the shots we were taking at that time were not good shots, and maybe a little quicker than we wanted,'' Jones said of the deathly dry spell. ``The thing that really hurt us was, while we were missing, they were going down and converting on the other end.''
Alexander said the Cavaliers were not as intense as they had been in beating the Deacons earlier.
``We lost our composure and didn't stick to our game plan,'' he said.
Alexander conceded that a half-court, last-second goal by Wake Forest's Jerry Braswell had an unnerving effect.
``We played them a good half, but instead of being down by one, it was by four after that basket,'' Alexander said.
Meanwhile, coach Dave Odom said the shot juiced up his Deacons.
``Our guards have had trouble against Virginia this year, and that shot loosened us up,'' Odom said.
Still, the Cavaliers recovered from that shot to tie the score twice early in the second half.
It was the dry spell that killed their dream and ended their season.
``This season has been a nightmare,'' the Cavaliers' Curtis Staples said.
In addition to the losses on the court, Jones suspended freshmen Darryl Presley and Scott Johnson after they were charged with shoplifting.
Next season's top recruit, Melvin Whitaker, was arrested earlier this week, accused of slashing football player Maurice Anderson with a razor.
``I think it is going to take a while to forget this year,'' Jones said. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
HUY NGUYEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Virginia's Harold Deane stuffs a shot by Wake Forest's Jerry
Braswell. The Demon Deacons closed out the Cavaliers with a 12-0
second-half run to win their ACC tournament semifinal.
by CNB