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Jan. 20, 2001
By HANK KURZ Jr.
AP Sports Writer
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Coming down the stretch of a tight game it feltit had to win, No. 13 Virginia got a big go-ahead dunk from Travis Watson, ahuge lift from the crowd and an 85-72 victory Saturday over No. 20 Missouri.
Watson, who didn’t start because of a strained right hamstring sustainedThursday, had 16 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. His dunk turned into athree-point play with 4:10 left that gave Virginia the lead.
“It was amazing that Travis played,” Virginia coach Pete Gillen said.”That he had such a good game with 16 and 10 … I’m speechless.”
Virginia (13-3) finished the game on a 17-3 run started by Watson, turning atight duel into a runaway that had University Hall delirious
“They got juiced up when we got the lead,” Gillen said of the crowd.”That got them a little bit unnerved, I think, and helped re-energize us.”
The Cavaliers, flat for much of the game, also helped themselves by making34-of-41 free throws, including 18-of-21 in the second half, by outreboundingthe Tigers 42-33 and holding them to 43.3 percent shooting.
“We wanted it a lot more,” said Donald Hand, who scored 20 points and fedWatson for the thunderous go-ahead jam. “We had a lot of lanes. We just had tokeep attacking no matter what. That’s when we’re at our best.”
And, Gillen said, when the team does what it’s supposed to do.
“If you defend and you rebound, you’re going to be in a lot of games,” hesaid. “I think we did a pretty good defensive job for us, and we reboundedwell and made our free throws. It was a great victory.”
The end came quickly after Watson’s move down the lane gave the Cavaliers a71-69 lead. Donald Hand followed with a free throw, Wesley Stokes missed thefront end of a one-and-one for the Tigers and Chris Williams hit a pair fromthe line to push Virginia’s edge to 74-69.
When Kareem Rush also missed the front end of a one-and-one for Missouri(12-5) with 2:09 left, Williams’ basket and two more free throws by Roger MasonJr. sealed a perfect nonconference record for Virginia.
The 11-0 mark, which also includes runaway victories against No. 4 Tennesseeand Purdue, is Virginia’s first without a loss in non-ACC games since the1981-82 Cavaliers went 15-0 in Ralph Sampson’s junior year.
Missouri, which got 22 points from Clarence Gilbert and 20 from Rush, wentnearly 3 1/2 minutes without another point after Rush’s fourth 3-pointer gave theTigers their last lead at 69-68 with 4:19 to play.
With the final minute ticking off the clock, the crowd erupted one moretime, chanting “ACC, ACC” while Rush was at the free-throw line.
“When they’re that loud, it does great things for a team,” Hand said.
And bad things to the opponent, Missouri coach Quin Snyder said.
“We were in the game late, but we didn’t make some plays and they did,” hesaid. “We’re finding out more and more about ourselves. We’re a work inprogress and I just want to see our guys continue to invest more in playing theway we need to. Games like this point those things out.”
Chris Williams added 17 points and Mason had 13 for the Cavaliers.
Early in the second half, the Tigers seemed primed to take control.
Johnnie Parker capped a 10-3 run to open the half with a one-handed putbackdunk that give Missouri a 40-37 lead. Then Mason got hot, scoring his firstseven points in a span of just 55 seconds.
After Rush’s third 3-pointer brought the Tigers back to even at 45, the leadchanged hands several times over the next few minutes.
At one point, Williams’ alley-oop dunk gave Virginia 51-48 lead and Gilberttied it with a 3-pointer 16 seconds later. Just eight seconds later, Hand’s3-pointer restored the Cavaliers’ lead, but Gilbert kept the shooting showgoing, scoring on a driving bank shot to make it 54-53.
Shortly thereafter, Watson made his big move down the middle, the Tigerscame up short at the line and the Cavaliers were on their way.