RE: Since it's that time of year.....
Doggett's chance to be a hero slips away again
-- Kelly Hodge
[March 5, 1995]
Robert Doggett treaded the fine line between hero and goat often over the last two years.
Unfortunately for East Tennessee State University's senior guard, he was never able to provide the heroics needed to keep his team alive in the Southern Conference basketball tournament.
Doggett was back in the spotlight Saturday night with the clock running down and his team desperately needing a basket against Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Unlike last year, when he missed the potential game winner against Western Carolina, Doggett never got off a shot against the Moccasins. He threw the ball away. He was called for a charge. And, finally, he was stripped of the ball as he sliced through a wide-open lane for what would have been a tying layup in the closing seconds.
That allowed the Mocs to escape 71-69 and pursue their third straight tournament championship tonight. The Bucs, who won the previous four, headed home, their last title run in Asheville ending in frustration.
"It's not a position I wanted to be in," said Doggett, one of four seniors who never fulfilled the promise they brought to ETSU. "We never should have been in the situation to need a basket to tie at the end. We should have put this one away a lot earlier."
But they didn't, due mostly to typically dismal free-throw shooting and Brandon Born, Chattanooga's all-conference forward.
Born drew the controversial charge on Doggett with 23 seconds left, sliding into the lane and getting the call with UTC nursing a one-point lead. He was also the man who stripped the ball to preserve the victory.
"I know he's all-conference, but he slid over into me," Doggett said of the charge. "The man didn't have position and he got the call. Down the stretch, we just didn't get any calls. I don't want to whine, but it's been that way for us a lot this year."
The officiating would have been secondary if the Bucs had shot the ball well at all.
Missed free throws, their Achilles heel for much of the last two seasons, again cost them dearly. They missed 17 of 39 tosses and made just 39 percent of their shots from the field.
What had been an 11-point ETSU lead in the first half steadily melted away as the Bucs searched for their offense.
"I think tonight put our season in perspective," said ETSU coach Alan LeForce. "We're great, then not very good. The one thing that's been consistent for us is that we're inconsistent."
The end result was a loss to a UTC team that was seemingly held together by Born and bailing wire.
Center Roger Smith was in street clothes, his broken foot in a cast. Smith's replacement, freshman Julian Scott, fouled out with 5:33 left. Pat Henderson, who backs up Scott, contributed 12 points and 13 rebounds but also got in foul trouble. He was gone with 1:29 left to play.
Forward Maurio Hanson, the Mocs' second-leading scorer, played only 18 minutes after getting tangled with Doggett......[sorry, again that's all I got]
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