January 21, 1999

TU just another bump in road for Walsh

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

It's hard to imagine a basketball team from Walsh searching for respect, but after 12 victories, including one over the nation's then-No. 1 team, the perennial power from Northeast Ohio was a big no-show in the national polls.

Critics may cite the fact that just one returning starter from last year's 25-10 team, but the Cavaliers are bound to start making believers out of somebody after knocking off their second top 10 opponent in two weeks.

Walsh got physical with 10th-ranked Tiffin University and left the Gillmor Student Center with an 83-75 victory in a game that wasn't as tight as the score would indicate.

The loss was the first for the Dragons in the American Mideast Conference, knocking them into a first place tie with Walsh and Mt. Vernon.

Walsh coach Steve Loy wasn't exactly taking the I-told-you-so approach after the game, but...

''We go on the road and the beat the number one ranked team (Mt. Vernon), and we come in here tonight and beat the number ten team, so I think we're a top 10 team,'' Loy said. ''We were the second ranked free throw shooting team in the country, too, so if we would have hit our free throws it could have been worse than what it was.''

''It's a long season, and a lot of that has to do with the schedule, too,'' Loy said. ''We had played almost all of our league games on the road, while Tiffin has most of theirs at home.''

The Cavaliers (13-5, 4-1 AMC) normally hit on 78 percent from the line, but were just 15 of 25 Wednesday night. It allowed Tiffin to chip away at what was a 64-40 Walsh lead with 13 minutes remaining.

The Dragons (14-5, 8-1) got to within eight (72-64) at the 3:09 mark, but make no mistake about, TU's best game never found the floor.

''Obviously we weren't very well prepared for this,'' Tiffin coach Dan Brook said. ''We got off to a slow start in the first half, and as a coach I just didn't go a good job of preparing this team to play in a big game. We gave ourselves a chance at the end, and I'm happy about that, but we just weren't ready.''

Physical play from the Cavaliers led to a pair of big troubles for the Dragons. First, point guard Andreas James was riddled with foul trouble all night, and was limited to 22 minutes on the floor. Second, leading scorer Josh Martin rarely saw the ball in the paint and finished with just four points on 2-of-7 shooting.

''That's something we're not used to,'' said Brook of James' foul trouble. ''I think in two years he's only been in foul trouble one time, so that definitely hurt. We also missed a lot layups, too. We were getting the looks, but the shots just weren't falling. We shot 34 percent (26 of 75). That's got to be the worst we shot all year.''

James picked up his third foul with 8:12 still left in the first half. At that point TU trailed 27-22, but by halftime the Cavaliers were shooting 62 percent (21 of 34) from the field and had expanded their lead to 50-32.

James came back to start the second half, but was whistled for his fourth foul with 17:53 remaining. Tiffin had gotten to within 52-39 at that point, but by the time James returned, the Walsh lead was back to 60-39.

Jemal Harris led the Tiffin scoring with 17 points. Wayne Belcher was next with 14 and Carson Duncan contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds. Martin also pulled down 10 boards.

Kevin Bille topped a balanced Cavalier attack with 19 points. Jason Zupp had 17and Rashad Hannibal (12) and Ray Berry (10) also finished in double figures.