Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 45

UNC Pulls Away To Win ACC Title SPORTS StoUn jirtss Section Sunday, March 4, 1979 Wings Explode In 3rd Period To Rip Aces Basketball Inside Today D-2 Suffolk wins regional basketball championship, but Windsor loses. D-3 NCAA, NIT to announce tourney pairings today; Indiana State wins No. 29. D-5 Appalachian, Furman win in Southern Conference tournament semifinals. 7 ACC writers upset over ticket-buying proposal.

By CHARLES KARMOSKY Daily Press Sports Editor GREENSBORO The Tar Heels are back at the pinnacle of the Atlantic Coast Conference, beating Duke Saturday night by 71-63 in the ACC's championship tournament, but it was a no-losers' finale because North Carolina and the Blue Devils advance into the NCAA title playoffs starting next Friday. The victory by Dean Smith's club, which never trailed after the first 2:14 of action, was its 23rd against five defeats and may earn the nationally seventh-rated Tar Heels the top seeding for the Eastern Regional first-round playoffs set for Raleigh and Providence. There's also a chance that the Blue Devils, ranked No. 5 in the polls and boasting a 22-7 ledger overall, could be awarded the No. 2 seeding for the first round of NCAA competition thanks to Georgetown's upset of Syracuse earlier Saturday.

If that's the way the seedings turn out when they're announced today, UNC and Duke could draw byes through the action slated for Friday and meet the survivors of games between the Nos. 7, 8, 9 and 10 seeds in next Sunday's finals in Raleigh. Teams seeded 3, 4, 5 and 6 will clash in Providence (R.I.) Saturday and the winners there plus the two from Raleigh on Sunday would then move on to Greensboro, N.C., for the Eastern finals the next weekend, March 16 and 18. Carolina's conquest of Duke last night, gaining it a 3-0 record over the Blue Devils when they've collided in ACC tourney finals, was never really in doubt except when the losers pulled into a 39-39 tie with 6:16 elapsed in the last half and were within three points with 36 seconds to go. UNC Coach Smith even noted in post-game comments that "we played with a lot of poise throughout," and in regard to Duke's playing without point guard Bob Bender, he said "it was a sad part for Duke, we would liked to have won with him in there." Bender was stricken will late in the afternoon following the pre-game meal (AP Laserphoto) DUKE'S GENE BANKS (CENTER) STARTS BETWEEN TWO TAR HEELS TO GET STOLEN BALL Mike O'Koren (31), Dave Colescott (20) Have Banks Outnumbered In Battle For Ball In ACC Tourney mon, VP! Grab Metro Cro wn JOHNSTOWN (Special to Daily Press) A four-goal barrage in the third period carried the Wings to a 7-5 Northeastern Hockey League troumph Saturday night over the visiting Hampton Aces.

Hampton Coach "Muzz" Mac-Pherson said his club played dumb hockey. "When you don't want to win it, that's exactly how you play," he said. The Aces, who clash with the surging Wings again tonight before returning home Tuesday night to entertain the Utica Mohawks at the Hampton Coliseum, saw a 3-2 advantage wiped out by the Wings in the final 20 minutes. During the third period it looked like Times Square on New Year's Eve the way players from both teams got in-- i See Aces, D-4, Cols. 3-6 Hampton First period Scoring: 1.

Ham. Misener (Coates. Billows) 2. Ham. Donnelly (Keeler) 3.

John. Lind (Cowell, Wong) 4. Ham. Coates (Dean, McPhee) 5. John.

Sargent (Willers, O'Neill) 16:39. Penalties: Billows, Ham (Slashing, fighting) Lundeen (John (charging, fighting) McMonagie, Ham (tripping) Rom bough. Ham (hooking) 15:09. Second period Scoring: 6. Ham, McMonagie (Martel) 7.

Ham. artel (Lemelin, Misener) 8. John. Cowell (O'Neill, Wong) 18:13. Penalties: Lind, John (hooking) Wong, John (cross necking) 11:24..

Third period Scoring: 9. John Willers (O'Neill) 10. John Lundeen (Lind, Haedrich) 11. John. Lundeen (Lind, Haedrich) 14:51: 12.

Lundeen (Machowski, Johnson) 17:59. Penalties: Lemelin, Ham (holding) Bales, Ham (leaving crease) Keeler, Ham (double minor) Keeler, Ham (five minutes fighting) Keeler (game misconduct); Hameiin, Ham (fighting), Hvnek (fighting) Price, John, (leaving crease); Mazroudis (fighting); Bvers, Joh. (lighting); Sargent, John (fighting) 16:52. Shots on Goal: Hampton 16 13 4 3S Johnstown 16 11 19 44 Goal tenders Hampton, Jim Bales; Johnstown, Jerry Price. A 2,728.

By GEORGE WATSON Daily Press Sports Writer MEMPHIS Virginia Tech accomplished during its first year in the Metro Conference what it couldn't do in 42 years as a member of the Southern Conference win a league basketball championship. Getting double figure scoring from all five starters, including 21 from tournament Most Valuable Player Dale Solomon, the Gobblers broke the game open midway through the second half Saturday night to whip second-seeded Florida State 68-60 and grab the Metro crown during their first season as a league member. As in Friday's 72-68 semifinal vie-' tory over top-seeded Louisville, the Gobblers' excellence at the free throw line proved to be the big difference. They connected on 24 of 28 at the charity stripe, including their first 14, compared to only four of nine by the Semi-noles. By virtue of the triumph, Tech, now 21-8, gets an automatic berth and a first-round bye in the NCAA championship tournament.

The Gobblers will probably be seeded in the Midwest Regional, although the NCAA will not announce its seedings and pairings until this afternoon. Tech held a 33-31 advantage at half-time, expanded it to 37-31 in the first two minutes of the second half, and then saw Florida State come back to deadlock the count at 43-all with 13:04 left in the game. But Solomon then scored a layup on a pass from Dexter Reid to start the Gobblers on a five-minute spree that saw them outscore the Seminoles 15-4. When it was over, the winners held a 58-47 lead with 7:20 on the clock. While Solomon contributed nine points during the burst, the Gobblers took advantge of six FSU turnovers, converting four of them into field goals.

After that, the closest the Seminoles could get was the final eight-point spread, assuring Tech its eighth consecutive victory. The Gobblers' largest lead was 13 (64-51) with 1:09 left on the clock. Once Tech achieved its commanding 11 -point advantage, Florida State FLORIDA STATE Bozeman Brown Anderson Jackson Parks Mann Chayman Totals VIRGINIA TECH L. Henson Robinson Solomon Ashford Reid Price Scott Totals fg tga It Ha reb pi tp 9 0 0 6 4 2 13 20 3 6 7 11 0 8 0 5 0 2 0 0 2 4 9 1 4 2 8 28 70 25 Ig tga ft tta reb pi tp 4 7 4 4 6 3 12 2 6 6 3 10 7 11 7 7 9 3 21 3 8 5 9 1 1 11 5 11 2 2 4 3 12 1 2 0 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 22 45 24 28 31 IS 68 Florida State 31 Virginia Tech 33 2960 3568 Team rebounds Florida Statet 2, VPI 1. A 4.119 Solo and, after tests at hospitals in Winston Salem and Durham, he underwent an emergency appendectomy.

While Smith praised highly Mike O'Koren and Dudley Bradley, the UNC scoring leaders with 18 and 16 points respectively and Bradley winning the Tourney's Everett Case Award (as voted by the coaches), no one could truly have said the Blue Devils would have fared better with Bender playing. Duke Coach Bill Foster, however, said "Bender played so well last (Friday) night, who knows?" He then added, "I'd have liked to see him in there," because "we didn't have good ball movement." Despite the lament about "good movement," the Blue Devils had only three fewer shots than the winning Tar Heels (49 to 52), but blew numerous, good percentage scoring chances. Overall, Duke hit only 33.3 percent the first half when it trailed by 6 and 8 points almost throughout, and wound up with 44.9 on a 56.0 performance in the final 20 minutes. Carolina, meantime was 43.8 the first half, at the conclusion of which it led by 31-25, then connected on 60 percent of its field goal tries after intermission for a closing 50.0 mark. The Tar Heels expanded their lead to its widest spread just 2:11 into the last half, 37-27, but ball-handling errors and missed shots enabled Duke to pull even (39-39) on six points by Jim Spanarkel, Mike Gminski and Vince Taylor.

Spanarkel gained more than a small measure of consolation in the defeat, because he set ajoew individual Duke scoring mark. He came into the game needing only two points to surpass Art Heyman's previous career high of 1,984. The Blue Devils' floor and spiritual leader never sank his first field goal until only 2:17 remained in the opening half, but four free throws prior to that he easily went past Heyman and eventually wound up with 13 points for the night. Gminski was Duke's top point producer with 19, but he missed 6 of 11 field-goal attempts and even missed four 'free throws, which is highly unusual for the losers' G-Man. After he and Spanarkel and Taylor paced their team to the momentary deadlock, the Tar Heels quickly led again by 44-39 on a three-point play by Al Wood and a long shot from the side by Bradley.

With 7:51 of action left, a pair of free throws by O'Koren lifted UNC to a six-point spread at 50-44. From then on, the eventual winners were on top much of the way by 5-6 except when Gene Banks and Spanarkel trimmed it to one at 53-52. The closest Duke could get after that was three points and O'Koren tallied 10 points final minute of play seven of them on foul shots when the Blue Devils were fouling frequently trying to get ball-possession in hope of overtaking the Tar Heels. When O'Koren rounded off UNC's 71-point total with a three-point play, either an elated or disgruntled booster virtually brought the game to a smashing but rather ignoble conclusion. While teammates were hugging and swarming all over O'Koren in celebration of the clincher, a bagged bottle of whiskey came flying out of the stands and splintered in the foul circle.

The booze mop-up was followed by Gminski "mopping up" for Duke with the game's final goal, which came too little and too late for a club that has been challenging mountains all season with displays of consistent Following the game, Duke Coach Foster, after congratulating UNC, with which it shared the regular-season title, said "we got too far behind early. We thought we could catch up, but didn't." That's the way it's been all season, and the Blue Devils perhaps may feel fortunate to have finished as well as they did and once more get a shot at an NCAA title though without Bender that may be one more mountain too many. As for UNC, Smith said his team's triumph was "a thrilling moment," and why not the Tar Heels were picked no better than third in preseason ACC predictions. DUKE Banks Dennard Spanarkel Gminski Harrell Taylor Gray Goetsch Totals NORTH CAROLINA Colescott Bradley Wood OKoren Budko Black Doughton Wolf Virgil Yonakor Totals Ig fga tta reb pt tp 13 0 2 12 2 13 1 3 3 12 5 11 2 3-5 7 0 0 0 0 22 49 0 2 8 2 13 It 0 3 3 4 1 1 0 0 25 35 fg Iga It Ha reb Duke North 63 71 Team rebounds Duke 5, UNC 3. became totally frustrated, throwing up long-range shots that were way off the mark.

ThetSeminoles' frustration came to a climax when Murray Brown, the nation's No. 1 percentage shooter, missed a dunk 'shot with a minute left. Had it not been for Brown, though, Florida State would not even have been in the contest. The 6-foot-8 junior produced a game-high 30 points and 11 rebounds. He canned 13 of 20 shots, most from close-in range, while his mates were only 15 for 50.

Even with Brown, the Seminoles shot only 40 percent for the game, while Tech was hitting at a 49 percent clip. Brown wound up with a three-game tournament record of 70 points, despite getting only six against Memphis State's slowdown tactics in the semifinals. The first half was a see-saw affair with neither team able to take command. No more than six points separated the two squads, Tech holding that bulge at 31-25 with 2:45 left before intermission. There were four deadlocks in the early going before the Seminoles finally broke to a four-point advantage (12-8) with 13:42 on the clock.

With four different players contributing, the Gobblers then outscored FSU 8-1 over the next two minutes to take the lead themselves 16-13. Eight more lead changes followed before Tech took the first half lead for keeps at 24-23 on a short jump shot by Wayne Robinson with 7:08 to go. A three-point play by Marshall Ashford hiked the margin to 27-23 before Chris Anderson hit a jump shot from the top of the key for the Seminoles. From there, a follow-up shot by Tic Price and a layup by Dale Solomon on a nifty pass from Price got the Gobblers their six-point bulge at 31-25. However, the Seminoles were able to close the gap to 33-31 by the end of the half.

Brown joined Solomon on the all-tournament team along with Tech's Wayne Robinson, Louisville's Darrell Griffith and Memphis, State's Rodney Lee. While Brown didn't receive any offensive support, Solomon did with Reid (12), Les Henson (12), Marshall Ashford (11) and Robinson (10) all breaking the two-digit mark. were flat in the first half coming off emotional victories over Cincinnati and Louisville, "explained Robinson, Tech's junior lead. "Being ahead by two at the half, we knew if. we played with more intensity in the second half, we could take them out." That's exactly what the Gobblers did.

Florida State's Bqbby Parks Eludes Phoebus Girls Win East Region Title 55-53 (AP Laserphoto) VPI's Dexter Reid With First Colonial leading 43-42, junior Patrice Johnson grabbed a rebound and the Phantoms brought the ball downcourt with 4:08 remaining. Phoebus took five straight shots but could not score. The Patriots finally got their hands on the ball and went into a stall. thirty-two seconds later, Phoebus fouled Gatlin who could not capitalize in two attempts at the foul line. Then See Freeman, D-4, Col.

1 Jimi Gatlin and 6-0 Yvonne Owens combined for six straight points. Gatlin, First Colonial's all-around standout, led all scorers with 18 points 12 in a brilliant fourth quarter. She had picked up two quick fouls in the FIRST COLONIAL (531; Gatlin 18. Gallagher 14. L.

Leaks 7, Owens 6. D. Leaks 8, Whitehurst 0, Wilson 9. PHOEBUS (551; Anastasio 17, Rainev 14, Johnson 2, Recdross 8, Freeman 13, Krawicw 1, Gilchrist 0, Perceval 0. First 12 11 53 55 21- first quarter and sat out all of the second.

Returning after halftime, Gatlin remained cold from the floor, hitting only two of seven attempts. Then came the final eight minutes. Ironically, just as Gatlin was warming up after her second enterance, Phoebus standout Lyn Anastasio was slapped with her fifth foul with 6:29 left. Anastasio had tallied 17 points, mostly on long-range shots By CARYL EDWARDS Daily Press Sports Writer Phoebus', Gloria Freeman sat in Nancy Lieberman's'spot on the bench Saturday night and it fit. So does the Group AAA Eastern Regional Girls' basketball crown.

It is the Phantoms' second in three years and it came as 5-foot-2 Freeman led the way to a 55-53 decision over First Colonial in the Old Dominion Field House. Lieberman is the ODU All-American. Freeman provided similar antics as Phoebus turned in its 23rd victory without defeat to advance to the semifinals of the Group AAA State tournament Thursday afternoon in Chariot-' tesville. The Phantoms face Northwestern Regional champion Gar-Field. Neither team ever led by more than four points.

The Patriots took a 35-31 lead late in the third quarter when 6-2 center iV- Si A-.