Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / March 25, 1993, edition 2 / Page 9
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BIG, BAD Panthers Defend CIAA Title, Crush NC Central Eagles In Richmond RICHMOND - Warren Peebles is Vir ginia Union's star guard, and he's one of the few players that Panthers coach Dave Robbins puts on the floor who is shorter than 6-foot-7. The truth is, Virginia Union, again CIAA champion, is big. Real big. Whereas most of the teams at the 48th annual tour nament, held here for five days at the end February, make do with guards playing forward and forwards playing center - short people playing big peoples' positions - the Panthers play big guys where big guys are supposed to play; and little guys, like the 6-foot Peebles, play outside of the three-point line where they belong. So when teams play Union, they gen erally try to slow the game down. Why? Well, the big guys for Union are among the best fast-break finishers in all of Divi sion II basketball nationwide, and Peebles and fellow guard Adrian Hill are quite adept at setting the big guys up for those big finishes. So, the fact is, you just don't want to run against Union. N.C. Central sure didn't want to in the CIAA championship. "You can't do it. You just can't," said Central's Scott Sherrill. "It's so hard to match up with them." Sherrjll, a 6-4, 270-pound forward who likes to play guard, is the Eagles biggest player. So the Kagles game plan was obvious: Shorten the game to try to keep the big guys from running and dunk ing and dominating. Central held the ball, running up to 35 seconds off the 45-sec ond shot clock before Larry Crowder would call a real, live, offensive play. ""Everybody's doing that against us," said Robbins, "but it helps tfs because it keeps our big people rested." This was the game that most of the 1 2 ,000 people who filled the Richmond Coliseum expected to see: Central, the Southern Division champion which had won its first 17 games before losing, against Virginia Union, the big, bad defending conference and national cham pions from Richmond. And they got a terrific show from Union's big people. Robert McKic, Reggie Jones, Troy Phillips and Tim Davis, all players at least 6-7 and at least 215 pounds, accounted for 47 of Union's 67 points in the 67-61 Panthers' win, and gave a perfect illustration of why, even without 6-9 All-American forward Derrick Johnson, who's out for the season with a shoulder separation, the Panthers are an odds-on favorite to win a second straight national title. OK, so we've already established why teams try to slow it down against Union. But there's a problem with that. The problem with slowing the ball down is that you take awav anv transition baskets you might get and try to score all your points in a halfcourt offense. Now, remember, if you miss, it's going to be hard to rebound with all of that beef the Panthers throw at you inside. There's a reason why Union had won 20 straight after the championship final. And Central, which has no inside game to speak of, tried to beat Union with jumpshooters, though Central's Jimmic Walker, Crowder and Clifton Daye arc quite adept at that. Still, by halftimc, the slowdown had netted Central a 33-22 deficit. This was not good. "We came in with the game plan to slow it down, work at least 20 seconds off the clock and attack." the Eagles' Clifton Daye said. "But we realized it wasn't working." This was not gtxxl at all. So in the second half, Central had to come out and play basketball with Vir ginia Union. That can be like voluntarily putting your neck under the gilloutine. And when Peebles made a layup with 13:19 to go, the Panthers were up 42-30, were looking to run awav and hide, and Central's neck was hanging out, ready to be chopped off. But Duye had other ideas. Dayc is a 6-3 junior from Durham, N.C., and he wears No. 23 on his jersey and Air Jordans on his feet. Yeah, he wants to be a little like Mike, but his coach Greg Jackson says, "I hate to make this comparison, but in the open court, he does remind you of Jordan." Daye had played poorly in the Eagles final regular season games and had a long talk with friends about his game prior to the Eagles semifinal win over Johnson C. Smith. They told him to go out and do his thing, to just be like Cliff. And being Cliff was just fine, like 8 for 8 shooting and 22 points fine, in the Eagles' 82-75 semifinal win over J.C. Smith. After that game, Union would get a look at a pre-Central slowdown from Nor folk State, which led the Panthers by 7 at halftime before falling 71-63. So coming into the final, Daye had his game back and his teammates felt like they could win using the slowdown. It'd worked for Norfolk State. Kind of. But here was Central down by 12 after Peebles made that aforementioned layin. and Ihe Eagles fans weren't scream ing as loudly as they were before the game began. The slowdown wasn't working and now playing with Union wasn't working either. "We need something from some where," Daye said. So he provided something. Daye hit two three-pointers and a layup and caused two Union turnovers on the other end. Suddenly, Central was down running with Union and, now, they were doing OK. Then feeling it was time for a big play, Daye makes a steal and then shows all of Richmond why he wears the number he wears and the shoes he wears. His show-slopping, two-handed slam - and this description doesn't do it justice - brought Central to within five, 58-53. Crowder later hit two free throws after McKie hit one. Now Union's lead was fouf." McKie was then fouled again and missed his free throw. During this Central run, the Eagles didn't letUnion run a p la y^ihey sim ply fouled a Panther and made him shoot a free throw. The reason why this game was close was because Union couldn't make the free throws. It was a problem all the game - the Panthers hit just 17 of 32 free bics - and it just got worse as the game got closer. In the final 1:50, the Panthers made just 6 of 16 of their free throws. "Our Achilles Heel was the foul shots," Robbins said. "If we make more, maybe it wouldn't have been as close, but then again, maybe the fans would've left. But when you miss that many free throws and still win you feel good." Virginia Union Couch Dave Robbins gives directions tgjtis troops who took advantage of their size to win third straight "
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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March 25, 1993, edition 2
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