ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310147
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CINCINNATI
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stanford had been winning easily in the NCAA tournament until its nemesis came along.
When Clarisse Machanguana got it going in the second half, so did Old Dominion. And now the Lady Monarchs are going someplace they haven't been for a while - the NCAA championship game.
Machanguana scored all 18 of her points after halftime Friday night as Old Dominion, which had struggled in its previous NCAA games, rallied from a 15-point deficit to take down Stanford 83-82 in a semifinal overtime thriller.
The 6-foot-5 senior from Mozambique came alive after some halftime prodding from coach Wendy Larry and made nine of 15 shots after taking only one shot in the first half.
``At halftime, Coach Larry pretty much told me that the free-throw area was wide open and I had to do something,'' Machanguana said.
She did. And so did point guard Ticha Penicheiro, the Portuguese flash who drives the Lady Monarchs (34-1). Penicheiro scored 18 points, including a basket that produced the final tie in overtime and a free throw for the winning point.
``I knew as a captain, as a senior, as a point guard, I had to be the leader out there,'' Penicheiro said.
She hit a running shot with 1:28 left to tie the score at 82, then sank a free throw with 50 seconds remaining to put the Lady Monarchs up by one.
Stanford had a final chance after Penicheiro missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 23.5 seconds left. But Jamila Wideman missed a jumper, Vanessa Nygaard couldn't hit on a follow and Wideman missed a 3-point shot from the right of the key just before the buzzer.
``I think there was contact,'' said Wideman, who tumbled to the floor after missing the left-handed jumper. ``There was contact all game, though. Sometimes they called, sometimes they didn't. I just didn't get the call.''
So it will be Old Dominion taking a 33-game winning streak to Sunday night's title game against Tennessee. It will be the Lady Monarchs' first appearance in the final since winning the championship in 1985.
The comeback was the biggest in a semifinal game. Ohio State rallied from nine down to beat Iowa in 1993.
Stanford (34-2), hoping to avenge an 83-66 loss at Old Dominion on Dec. 17, instead lost in the national semifinals for the third straight year.
The Cardinal had won their four previous NCAA games by an average of 32.8 points and seemed headed for another rout Friday, but it wasn't to be. A big reason was 29 turnovers against Old Dominion's relentless pressure. ODU had forced 28 in beating Stanford in December.
``Our team is very disappointed,'' Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. ``I thought we came out at the beginning of the game and did a good job playing the way we wanted to play. Unfortunately, we didn't do a good job taking care of the ball.''
Old Dominion also turned up the defensive pressure in the second half, packing its post players inside to cut off that part of Stanford's game and then running a defender at Kate Stabird, who had burned the Lady Monarchs with 21 points on 7-for-8 shooting and four 3-pointers in the first half.
Starbird was 0-for-6 in the second half and finished with 26 points.
``In the locker room at halftime, we talked about how in order to stop Stanford we had to stop Kate Starbird,'' Penicheiro said. ``We did a much better job on her in the second half.
``She made so many shots in the first half because she was wide open. In the second half, we got in her face.''
Stanford's Charmin Smith hit both ends of a 1-and-1 with 10.1 seconds left to send the game into overtime tied at 76. The Cardinal had blown a 15-point first-half lead and rallied from a four-point deficit in the final 26 seconds.
Smith made her shots after Machanguana missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 11.4 seconds remaining. Penicheiro had a chance to win it in regulation, but her running shot bounced off the rim with 2.7 seconds left and Smith grabbed the rebound.
But the five extra minutes weren't enough for Stanford and Old Dominion, once one of the prime players in women's basketball, has a chance to get back to the top.
``This basketball team never ceases to amaze me,'' Larry said. ``They're down 15, they don't die, they fight back. We go into overtime with two starters on the bench, and the bench has the heart to love the battle and make it happen.'' see microfilm for box score
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. ASSOCIATED PRESS Old Dominion players (left toby CNBright) Tarijuana Napoleon, Nicole Bellinghausen, Stacy Himes, Nyree
Roberts and Kelly Bradley celebrate in the final minutes of their
victory over Stanford. color
2. ASSOCIATED PRESS Stanford's bench didn't want to watch the final
moments Friday night as they lost for the second time this season to
Old Dominion. KEYWORDS: BASKETBALL