Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 31, 1990 TAG: 9003310307
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DOUG DOUGHTY SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
To the surprise of few, the Cardinal advanced to the NCAA championship game, defeating the Cavaliers 75-66 at Thompson-Boling Arena on the University of Tennessee campus.
"I think this confirms that we can play with them," UVa coach Debbie Ryan said. "I honestly believed we could beat Stanford. If we played again tomorrow, it might be a different story."
The Cardinal will play Auburn, which handed top-ranked Louisiana Tech its first loss of the season, 81-69, before 17,601, a single-session NCAA record. The paid attendance was 19,467, also a record.
Stanford entered Friday night's game with a winning margin of 27.9 points per game, but the Cavaliers cut a 10-point deficit to 42-38 at the half and trailed 48-44 following a bank shot by Heather Burge with 15:05 remaining.
But Virginia failed to score on its next nine possessions, and Stanford went ahead 55-44 before Tammi Reiss ended UVa's dry spell with 9:18 left.
"It looked like we were forcing the ball inside instead of letting the game come to us," Ryan said. "We were getting upset and the turnovers made us overreact."
The Cavaliers (29-6) committed 20 turnovers, including 15 in the second half. After a pair of free throws by Reiss made it 69-61 with 2:05 left, UVa had turnovers on its next four possessions.
"That killed me," Ryan said. "What we had to do was get the ball [inside] because they were all over us on the perimeter and we just didn't take our time. We hurried."
The Cardinal (31-1) had enjoyed so many lopsided victories, including eight by 40 points or more, that there was some question about its readiness for a close game. But Virginia never made Stanford squirm.
The Cavaliers could not get closer than eight points over the final 13 minutes and needed a 3-pointer by Dena Evans with six seconds left to keep the margin in single figures.
Nevertheless, it was only the third game all season that Stanford had failed to win by 12 points or more and the 73 points matched the low for the year by the Cardinal, who were averaging 93.6.
"From our standpoint, that wasn't the Stanford team that people are used to watching," Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said. "We came out tight.
"We hit some critical 3-pointers [Stanford was 5-of-8], but we weren't able to run our offense the way we wanted to, and you've got to give Virginia's defense credit for that."
Stanford is so balanced that national player of the year Jennifer Azzi is its third-leading scorer, and Friday night was no exception. The Cardinal had four scorers in double figures, led by senior forward Katy Steding with 18.
All-America guard Dawn Staley scored 18 for Virginia, but had just one field goal and four points in the second half while suffering a recurrence of the leg cramps that plagued her in Virginia's 79-75 victory over Tennessee in the East Region final.
Staley left the game with 11:52 remaining, returned with 10:21 left, and then left the game for good with 1:26 remaining. She had played the entire first half, scoring nine points in a stretch of 2:01 as UVa rallied from a 40-30 deficit.
"When Dawn's on the bench, it's a different story," Ryan said. "From 13 minutes on, she was in incredible pain. I had to take her out after she asked to go back in.
"We've got to do something about it. It's just affected too many big games. Really, it seemed like [the condition] was getting better until it started again with our first NCAA game against Penn State."
The Cavaliers got some offense down the stretch from 6-foot-4 freshman Heather Burge, who scored 14 points in the final 8:13, but until that point Burge and her sister, Heidi, had been the Turnover Twins.
"A lot of people criticize [us] and say, `You always look like you're trying to force it in to the big girls,' " Reiss said, "but they're our wealth sometimes.
"If our coaching staff says to get it into the big girls, then we'll get it in to the big girls. I think Stanford knew it had secured the win and let [Heather Burge] catch it and [tried] not to foul her."
UVa didn't have many other offensive options with Staley hampered and Reiss experiencing a 2-for-13 shooting night. The Cavaliers shot 32.1 percent from the field in the second half and 38.1 for the game.
"We played them well in the first half," Reiss said. "A lot of other teams didn't play them as well as we did. Tonight, they were just a better ballclub, but I don't think they'd beat us 10 out of 10 times." VIRGINIA MPFGFTRAFPT Scott 271-60-04132Ward 173-50-03156Hei. Burge 293-101-28047Staley 367-133-484318Reiss 402-137-742011Hea. Burge 185-94-470314Smith 161-11-33013Evans 152-60-00125Franklin 20-00-00000Totals 20024-6316-204092166 STANFORD MPFGFTRAFPT Steding 365-136-681218Zeilstra 243-62-24118Stevens 308-170-060416Azzi 385-92-465315Henning 404-104-475312Whiting 261-112-48024Parson 61-10-00012Totals 20027-6716-2043121675 Rebounds include team rebounds Score by periods: Virginia 38-28-66 Stanford 42-33-75
Three-point goals - Virginia: Scott 0-3, Staley 1-3, Reiss 0-4, Evans 1-3, Totals 2-13. Stanford: Steding 2-3, Azzi 3-5, Totals 5-8.
Turnovers - Virginia 20 (Reiss 6); Stanford 17 (Henning 7). Blocked shots - Virginia 5 (Heidi Burge 3); Stanford 3 (Whiting 2). Steals - Virginia 9 (Reiss 3); Stanford 11 (Azzi, Henning 3).
Technical fouls - None. Officials - Broderick, Kennedy. Attendance - NA.
by CNB