The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 17

Sports Wednesday SECTION November 29 1995 (The Charlotte IN THE SPOTLIGHT TONIGHT: Duke vs UNC Greensboro 7:30 pm Wake Forest vs Oklahoma 7 pm (ESPN) Stakes not as high for Deacons-Cowboys rematch Duke gets refresher course in winning passes easily Dooley gives Heels a scare in his unknown with two projected starters having left Oklahoma State early The addition of two transfer players adds to the uncertainty Tipoff is at 7 never seen a bad Eddie Sutton-coached team Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said I expect to see one Wednesday night 1 know it will be at least as strong a test as we need at this time of year probably The Deacons (1-0) opened last weekend Please see Deaconspage 5B By LEONARD LAYE Sports Editor Wake Forest gets its first true test of its No 10 national ranking tonight facing a mixed blessing of sorts in its pairing with Oklahoma State in the Great Eight double-headers The Deacons have to contend with departed stars Bryant Reeves and sharpshooter Randy Rutherford as they did last March when the Cowboys stopped them one game short of the Final Four Yet they are facing something of an was a less-than-subtle reminder of how the Blue Devils scrapped and hustled their way through the tournament think it was a huge step for said Wojciechowski finding a new level of confidence after a dismal freshman season He had 10 points in the 88-81 win over then-lOth-ranked Iowa was tremendously emotional It was one of the best feelings had in over a year-and-a-half Last year we have Please see Devilspage 5B By SAM ADAMS Raleigh Bureau DURHAM By winning the Great Alaska Shootout Duke proved it ready to be cast into the role of a has-been after last nightmarish season But judging from the butterfly stitches under guard Steve chin the Blue Devils forgotten what like to stage a postgame celebration bloodied chin courtesy of assistant coach Tim shoulder as the two hugged after win over Iowa Hornets continue rolliit Charlotte wins its third straight KAREN TAMAssociated Press CHAPEL HILL Bill Dooley the Richmond basketball coach is obviously an impostor I know Bill Dooley and that is not Bill who used to coach football right here at North Carolina Anyway the man in the necktie pacing in front of bench Tuesday night goes by that name and after the job his Spiders did against North Carolina coming this close before losing 83-76 at the Dean Smith Center he can call himself John Wooden or Adolph Rupp if he wants Or Dean Smith Good job uh Bill There were two good stories in this one near-miss after being down 47-24 at halftime and North near-loss to a team that should have been a walkover One national publication ranked all 301 Division I teams this week North Carolina was in the top 20 Richmond was not in the top 200 It was 234th to be exact The Spiders came in as 20-point underdogs and played like it for the first 15 minutes or so falling behind 30-12 were a said the man who calls himself Dooley not only missed a lot of shots early some of them were air balls is a legendary program with a legendary coach Our guys grew up seeing Carolina on TV We tried to battle that by getting here early and having a shoot-around (Monday night) let them get used to the place let them look up at Michael jersey tried to address that but until you come out of that tunnel with the fans there and the band playing that familiar tune and you know the coach sitting there The Spiders lost their heads but found them and came back to within a point at 72-71 but make it reach Smith said he told his Tar Heels at the half know how good these guys and it was like a self-fulfilling They know how good Richmond was and they still know how good they are After a strong start with two wins and a two-point loss in Hawaii last week the Tar Heels appeared to be considerably better than their clippings Then when they got out to the big lead on Richmond they went into neutral and looked like their clippings which had them somewhere in the middle of the ACC The Spiders started hitting and playing defense and pretty soon the young feet were to the fire was a credit to our team that they won like that especially for a young team A lot of teams handle said Smith a crazy year We should be very happy with the win we better than Richmond Or maybe like Wake Forest which beat Richmond last year by four points and had a pretty good year (including the ACC The Tar Heels have enough talent to beat anybody but enough question marks and inexperience to lose to a whole lot more teams than they might have lost to in other seasons when they were hanging all those championship banners in the rafters Even the freshmen who have been forced into key roles by the loss of Jerry Stackhouse Rash-eed Wallace and Donald Williams the heaviest losses of any team in America are showing flashes of excellence Antawn Jamison the big fellow from Charlotte and Vince Carter the Florida flash and Ademola Okulaja a pleasant surprise from Germany are the goods They can play And as they mature the Tar Heels will grow tougher Smith likes what he sees of the young ones but he adds mean I rather have Jerry Stackhouse Rasheed Wallace and Donald He has faced challenges such as this in the past and always won Many feel he likes coaching a less-gifted team He smiles at that all hard jobs" he said harder to have your team ready when really good you have to go through some adversity to be ready at tournament By RICK BONNELL Staff Writer MILWAUKEE You know it from the Milwaukee 49 percent shooting but the Charlotte Hornets won a game with their defense Tuesday night The defense AWOL since the trade of Alonzo Mourning came alive to force 18 turnovers resulting in 33 Charlotte points and a 106-98 victory at the Bradley Center For the Hor- nets to at least be adequate defensively this season this is how they must play gambling pestering exploitive Probably the decisive span came in the second quarter with the Hor- nets down 54-51 Charlotte forced three straight turnovers to take a 60-54 lead The Hornets 6-8 and winners of three straight never trailed again got to be that kind of scrambling-type said Hornets assistant coach Bill Hanzlik who took over for Allan Bristow after Bristow was ejected in the second quarter have the big guys inside but we can be big in other ways got (6-5) Kendall Gill at the point and at (shooting guard and small forward) we have a smorgasboard When scrambling playing hard we feel like things are happening for Lots happened Tuesday night most of it good for Charlotte In particular all three acquisitions in the Mourning deal Glen Rice Matt Geiger and Khalid Reeves played well together for the first time since the arriving from Miami Rice totaled 18 points seven rebounds and five assists Geiger went for 14 points and 10 rebounds hitting seven of eight shots And Reeves lost for most of his first two weeks in Charlotte scored 19 off the bench including a wild 17-footer as he was falling to the floor If any of the three ex-Heat players looked like a dud earlier in the season it was Reeves Suddenly found his niche after contributing 17 points and six assists during victory in Boston I need is one game and said Reeves were no pick-and-rolls (before) and not what I want" Heads up: North Vince Carter (15) takes the Tar 83-76 victory in Chapel Hill Tuesday night ball up and runs into Eric Poole during the North Carolina improved to 3-1 Heels escape web UNC turns blowout to blown lead holds on a layup The three-point play gave North Carolina a 75-71 advantage and the Spiders got no closer fouling the Tar Heels time and time again in the final three minutes to stop the clock excited to have a good win over a very good Richmond North Carolina coach Dean Smith said told them at the half that the game over and I guess that was a self-fulfilling prophecy was good for us to win like that We had some learning situations that will help us later in the The Tar Heels got their best play from center Serge Zwikker who made 9-of-l 1 shots for 18 points Freshman forward Antawn Jamison Please see UNCpage 5B By SAM ADAMS Raleigh Bureau CHAPEL HILL If five minutes had been added to North game against Richmond Tuesday night Tar Heels coach Dean Smith might have aged another 35 years The young unproven Tar Heels hung on to beat Richmond 83-76 at the Smith Center barely surviving the second-half 3-point assault North Carolina (3-1) found out that a big lead is only good if you play to keep it The Tar Heels frolicked early leading the Spiders by as much as 25 points in the first half When guard Jeff Mclnnis drained a buzzer-beating 3-point bank shot the Tar Heels had a 47-24 lead With four minutes left in the game guard Carlos No 1 Kentucky loses UMass drops top-ranked Wildcats 92-82 in Great Eightpage 6B Cueto made his fourth 3-pointer of the game and one of 10 3-pointers in the second half and the Spiders trailed 72-71 Clinging to the one-point lead the staggered Tar Heels got their biggest play of the game Guard Shammond Williams missed a jump shot from the left baseline that Richmond rebounded and the Spiders raced upcourt looking for the lead But Williams stole the ball from Spiders guard Daryl Oliver ignored two open teammates and was fouled scoring Please see Hometspage 4B INSIDE pumped for contract run Speedway will pass on Sportsman races ARCA events to replace series in Running back eager to return and prove himself of worthwhile deal Davidson named Jim Murphy its new athletics director Murphy 39 currently an associate athletics director at Georgia Tech replaces the well-known Terry Holland who left for the athletics position at Virginia Murphy was chosen from three finalistspage 5B A Green Bay Packers fan who survived a plane crash credits his yellow foam rubber chee-sehead for preventing a serious injurynext page Ruling the airwaves Panthers rout Hornets in ratingsnext page can play against the Colts If not likely return Dec 10 against the San Francisco 49ers now like a volcano waiting to erupt" Moore said extremely tough to sit back and not to be able to contribute a football player I enjoy it the same way I did when I was playing pee wee football on the sideline instead of out there in the battle on Sundays with my teammates and friends is like being in prison I have truly Please see Pantherspage 3B By RON GREEN Jr Staff Writer Charlotte Motor Speedway will replace its controversial sportsman division races in which three drivers have been killed in six years with a series of Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) races next year The Sportsman division was created by Speedway President HA Wheeler as a training ground for drivers seeking superspeedway experience The latest fatality occurred Oct 6 when Russell Phillips of Mint Hill was killed in a fourth-turn crash think it was a safety Wheeler said Tuesday think it was a common sense concern believe in luck and I believe in fate but been real unlucky with that division I think better off with The end of Sportsman racing at Charlotte necessarily mean the end of the division Wheeler said NASCAR indicated it was still interested but will apparently look at other shorter tracks like the half-mile Concord Speedway where speeds are much slower death brought the Sportsman troubled history in Charlotte into the spotlight Please see Racingnext page A By CHARLES CHANDLER StaN Writer ROCK HILL Derrick Moore says excited about his potential return to the Carolina Panthers lineup Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts but is frustrated by contract negotiations between his agent and team officials Moore the leading rusher with 576 yards has missed the past three games with a sprained knee practice in a knee brace this week to see if he Colleges 5-6B NBA 4B NHL 2B Update 6B.