Page 6
The Blue Banner
March 7, 1996
Men’s basketball team makes it to the semifinals, beats Winthrop 69-61
Anne Kuester
Sports Editor
For the first time since the
1990 season, the men’s basket
ball team advanced to the sec
ond round of tournment play.
The Bulldogs beat Winthrop,
the sixth seed team, 69-61 last
Thursday night at Liberty Uni
versity.
“I am very happy for our kids.
This is the first tournament
game we’ve won since I’ve been
at UNC-Asheville,” said Coach
Randy Wiel said.
With point guard Vincent
Krieger sick with the flu, the
team was somewhat at a disad
vantage. Strong play from Josh
Kohn, Josh Pittman, and Rob
ert Stevenson balanced out the
offensive attack for the Bull
dogs.
Kohn scored 22 points, hit
ting five out of 11 3-pointers,
making him the fifth all-time
highest scorer in UNCA’s his
tory with 1,456 points.
Also, since UNCA went Di
vision I ten years ago, Kohn
has become UNCA’s all-time
leading scorer.
Pittman would finish with
15 pointSj seven of which
came from the free-throw line.
He also would pull down
seven offensive rebounds and
two defensive ones.
Pittman had two assists, one
block, and three steals.
Stevenson scored ten points
for the Bulldogs, four rebounds,
one block , and two steals.
Victor Newman scored seven
The first points of the game
came from Winthrops’ Todd
Pigford at the free-throw line.
Krieger answered by pushing
"I knew Winthrop was playing good. We are even. We
aren 't better than them, and they aren 't better than us.
The one that’s having the good night is going to win the
game, and today we were fortunate."
—Coach Randy Wiel
points and had nine rebounds, the ball up the court and pull-
Six of the nine were defensive, ing up for a jumper.
Jeff Coble contributed seven flrsj h^lf, the teams
points and four assists.
matched each other, keeping
the score close until the last
two minutes of the game, when
Winthrop was unable to score.
The teams headed to the
locker rooms with the Bull
dogs ahead 41-38.
Both teams had 16 rebounds
in the first half. However,
Winthrop was dominant on
the defensive boards with ten
to UNCA’s seven.
In the locker room Wiel told
his team to hit the boards
harder.
"I mainly wanted our guards
to do a better job rebound
ing,” Wiel said.
Kohn opened up the second
half with a 3-pointer, with an
assist from Pittman. In the past
Kohn has always put on a strong
performance against Winthrop.
“I think it’s by chance. I get
looks, shots drop,” Kohn said.
“It doesn’t matter who we play
though, you’ve got to be ready.”
In the. second half, the Bull
dogs shooting percentage
dropped from 43.8 to 30.4,
but their defense caused
Winthrop to shoot 24.1 per
cent.
“In the second half, we got
the second shots at crucial
times. Late in the game, we got
offensive rebounds to start up
our offense,” Wiel said."You
prepare for every team differ
ently and I’m just glad we did
what we had to do at the end of
the game to win.”
Bulldogs lose 73-60 to Liberty in semifinals of tournament
Anne Kuester
Sports Editor
The Bulldogs went into the semifi
nals game against Liberty University
last Friday, facing more than just the
Liberty Flames.
The team played against a team with
a huge home-court advantage, and
they did it with two of their team
members sick with the flu. The Bull
dogs lost 73-60.
“There’s only one (team) that’s go
ing to go all the way. So this was our
loss. I thought we did some nice things
this season, and hopefully next year
we can build on this,” Coach Randy
Wiel said.
The Bulldogs saw a strong perfor
mance from senior Victor Newman.
He scored ten points, and pulled down
ten rebounds, seven were on the de
fensive end of the court.
Another senior, William Coley,
scored 11 points and had eight re
bounds, six defensively and two of
fensively.
Coley fouled out with 2:29 remain
ing in the game. Robert Stevenson
had ten points.
Vincent Krieger, ^he team's point
guard was unable to contribute in his
normal fashion.
The day before Krieger had a tem
perature of 103 degrees. Senior Ralf
Melis was also sick.
“I thought all the other guys chipped
in and we played with Josh Kohn at
point guard for the most part. He
hasn’t played point guard for two
years,” Wiel said. “He only does it in
practice, and that limits his offensive
abilities too.”
Last Wednesday Kohn was named
First Team All-Conference player for
the Big South.
He averaged 13.9 points a game , 3.3
assists, and led the conference in three
pointers with 83.
Against Liberty Kohn went one for
seven from the 3-point line and ended
the night with 11 points.
“We were pretty much handicapped
playing without Vincent Krieger. He
makes us go,” Wiel said.
“We’re pretty much an up-tempo
team, and when we don't have that it
limits us.”
In the first half of play, the Bulldogs'
shooting percentage was 51.9, while
the Flames shot 44.4 percent.
The team looked focused and did
not seem to be affected by the crowd.
It was bbvious that Liberty’s Peter
Aluma was going to be a problem- for
UNCA.
“It’s nice when you have size like
Aluma, it creates a big problem. We
are very small, with Victor at 6’7" and
Coley at 6’5," Weil said.
Aluma finished the game with 19
points and three blocks.
Ten of the 19 points were off dunks
that would ignite the crowd at Lib
erty.
“We just had to do the best we
could and just try to contain him,”
Pittman said. “He was a big factor.”
Pittman also said that without
Krieger and Melis at full strength, the
team was out of sync from the start,
and that the crowd was a factor in the
game.
“We tried to focus on the game but
that crowd boosted them a lot. Plus,
the referees, were a little hard on us
tonight,” Pittman said.
In the second half, the Bulldogs
defensive intensity was consistent
with the first half, but their offense
fell short of what was needed to win
the game.
UNCA shot 23.1 percent while the
Flames shot 46.2 percent.
“We scratch and fight and we rely
on shooting the ball well and solid
defense,” Wiel said.
“Our defense was pretty good to
day. In the second half, I wish we
would have made some more shots.
We got shots, the shots just didiji’t
drop, and that’s basketball.”
Wiel said that Aluma was an intimi
dating factor, and it was hard to get
shots inside because of his presence.
However, Aluma was not a one-
man show for Liberty.
The Flames had three other players
score in double figures. Larry Jacksbn
had 16, Marcus White had 13, and
Erik Sorenson scored 11.
“We don’t worry about one particu
lar player, you worry about the team.
We worry much more about what we
do,” said Wiel. “If we do what we do
well, it should take care of them.”
Wiel said that he would like to see
the tournament held in a neutral site
in the future, but realizes that that
would cost the conference money.
"It's pretty nice to play in front of a
crowd where 7,000 yell for you and
25 for the other team," Wiel said. "It
was a vicious home-court advantage."
Women’s basketball team heads to the Bk South Conference Tournament
^ I . T TX T A / -1 /\ ' .1 r . . .... 1 _1 ^ T TX.T /T T^.T ^ ~W  t-I /->  *-* ' I 'W r/A c
Nick Foster
Staff Writer
Women’s basketball teams in the
Jig South Conference will begin tour-
tiament play on Thursday in Radford,
Vz. On the horizon for the winner is
I trip to the NCAA Tournament.
UNCA, 4-10 in the conference and
6-20 overall, enters the tournament as
the number seven seed and will face
the host Radford Highlanders at 8:00
p.m. on Thursday. Radford, 10-4 in
the conference and 14-11 overall, is
seeded number two and is the defend
ing tournament champions.
“Our
w
ayers
now
hat
they are
capable
of do-
»
1 n g ,
h
e a
Photo by Michael Taylor
The women's basbtball team hudles up to talk o play over during one of tlieir last
practices before they leave lor the Big South Conference tournament.
d
coach
Ray
Ingram
said. “It
depends
o n
whether
we can
put good
play to
gether
for 40
minutes,
three
times in
a row. If
we can
do that, I
think we
can win
thetour-
n a -
ment.”
“I feel
very good about our chances m this
game because we know we can play
with them,” Ingram said. “We played
Radford very well here losing only by
five, and in the first half of the game
at Radford we played them well.”
Radford won that game 86-58, but
was up by only six points at halftime.
The Highlanders beat the Bulldogs
earlier this season 86-81 in Justice
Center.
According to Ingram, the final score
of 86-58 can be deceiving because the
team’s leading scorer and rebounder,
Vicki Giffin, didn’t play in the second
half.
“There is no reason for us not to go
into this game feeling that our chances
are very good,” Ingram said. “Last
year we played them in the tourna
ment and with two minutes left in the
game, we were down by only four.”
The final of the game between the two
teams in last year’s tournament was
85-74.
The Bulldogs finished the regular
season in a winning fashion beating
the Charleston Southern Lady Bucs
(CSU) on Saturday night.,
Center Candy Credito is one of four
players who will be making their first
trip to a Big South Conference Tour
nament.
According to Credito, the Bulldog’s
confidence is up and was boosted by
the victory over CSU on Saturday.
Giffin will be going to her third
tournament and feels the team fin
ished the regular season on a positive
note. “With the win on Saturday and
a good practice on Sunday, the team is
heading to Radford with a positive
attitude,” Giffin said.
According to Ingram, UNCA’s four
conference wins were good ones. The
Bulldogs beat the first place Spartans
of UNC Greensboro (UNCG) at
home and had a 19 point victory at
fourth place Coastal Carolina (CCU).
UNCA also beat CSU and Liberty
this season.
“We’ve had a very roller coaster type
season at least as far as emotionally,”
Ingram said. “The players have been
up and down as individuals because
they have played good and bad. In
between those good wins were some
disappointing losses.”
According to Credito, the team needs
to stay focused on the task at hand and
not look ahead to who they would
play if they win on Thursday. “Con
centration and execution are some of
the things we need to do to come away
victorious,” Credito said.
According to Giffin, UNCA must
be intense. “We have to come out
with intensity at both ends of the
floor to be successful,” Giffin said.
Radford’s
Lisa
Howard
has led the
confer-
ence in
three-
point
shooting
for much
of this sea
son. The
Highland
ers possess
another
good three-
point
shooter in
freshman
Photo by Michael Taylor
UNCA'S women's basketball head coach Ray Ingram talks to players Jessica Januseski
practice. The team leftfo
Kim Hairston. This duo in Radford’s
backcourt could help determine the
outcome of this quarterfinal matchup.
“To be effective against Radford,
we need rebounding,” Credito said.
“We also have to get back on de
fense.”
The number one seeded Spartans of
UNCG will face the eighth seeded
Liberty Flames at 1:00 p.m. in the
tournament opener. The Spartans
were the preseason favorite to win
the conference tournament this year
with a predicted number one finish.
The number four seed, CCU, will
play the fifth seeded Winthrop Lady
Eagles in another quarterfinal
matchup on Thursday at 3:00 p.m.
In the other quarterfinal game, the
third seeded University ofMaryland-
Baltimore County (UMBC) will play
the sixth seeded CSU at 6:00 p.m.
With a victory on Thursday, UNCA
and Candy Credito during pi
yesterday and play Radford I
■or their conference tournament
tonight at 8:oo p.m. in Virginia.