Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992 TAG: 9203290169
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long
"Uh, we forgot," said Debbie Ryan, the UVa women's basketball coach. "Think about it: We leave the awards in Rock Hill [after the ACC Tournament] and today we didn't cut down the nets.
"Maybe there is a message there. This team knows there are bigger things out there."
The Cavaliers clinched their third straight trip to the women's Final Four by beating Vanderbilt 70-58 in front of a capacity crowd of 8,715 at University Hall.
Virginia trailed 56-54 before outscoring the Commodores 16-2 over the last 6:11, and the Cavaliers scored the last 12 points of the game.
"I thought about losing, and that was something I didn't want to do," said two-time ACC Player of the Year Dawn Staley, who finished with 21 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
After Vanderbilt took its first lead, 38-35, Staley scored 11 of Virginia's next 17 points, several after forcing turnovers. In a span of 1:41, she made a 3-pointer and two end-to-end driving layups.
That kept the Cavaliers in the game until 6-foot-5 junior Heather Burge found her groove. After Misty Lamb hit a 3-pointer that put Vanderbilt on top by two points with 6:33 to play, Burge scored 10 of UVa's next 12 points.
Burge made the tying and go-ahead baskets, but her most important shot may have come with 5:06 left, when she scored and was fouled by Vanderbilt's 6-8 sophomore, Heidi Gillingham.
It was the fourth foul on Gillingham, who had only six points and four rebounds but blocked six shots. Five of Gillingham's blocks came in the first half, when Heather Burge and her twin sister, Heidi, were 4-of-17 on field-goal attempts.
"In the first half, I felt like I was a freshman in high school, when I used to brick the ball over the backboard," Heather Burge said. "I don't know how many of my shots she blocked, but she altered a few.
"It was disconcerting at first. I didn't think the three inches would make that much of a difference, but she jumps, too. She can reach around the whole key."
Heather Burge was 4-of-12 before making a layup early in the second half that was the first of nine field goals in a row.
"I came over to the bench and Audra [Smith] and Melanee [Wagener] both told me, `Square up,' " Burge said. "That was all it took.
"I hit my first shot and I knew I had found `it.' I knew I could score at will if I had the ball. I felt dominant."
Ryan estimated the Cavaliers ran the same play 10 straight times before going to a spread offense with 1:56 left. Burge finished with 28 points, giving her 60 in two regional games.
"I think I succeeded pretty well until I got in foul trouble," Gillingham said. "I didn't play smart in getting my third foul [with 1:33 left in the first half]. If I didn't have all the fouls, I think it would have been a totally different game."
Staley, who made 10 of 15 field-goal attempts, was voted the most outstanding player of the tournament. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Heather Burge, Vanderbilt's Shelley Jarrard, Vickie Plowden of Miami and Rosemary Kosiorek of West Virginia.
Jarrard led the Commodores with 15 points in the regional championship game, but the story for Vanderbilt was Lamb, who had not made a 3-pointer all season before Saturday.
Lamb had not scored in the game before hitting four 3-pointers in the second half. The Commodores were 10-of-22 on 3-point attempts for the game, making better than 50 percent before missing several desperate attempts at the end.
"We have some secrets in our gym that we wanted to make public," Vanderbilt coach Jim Foster. "We felt we could exploit that today; the Burges aren't used to playing perimeter defense against 3-point shooters."
The 13th-ranked Commodores, who had a 6-5 record in Southeastern Conference games, finished the season 22-10.
Virginia set a school record with its 32nd victory (in 33 games) and will play the West Regional champion Stanford at noon next Saturday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
In their first trip to the Final Four, the Cavaliers lost to eventual champion Stanford in the 1990 semifinals. Last year, Tennessee beat Virginia 70-67 in overtime in the championship game.
"I don't want to take anything away from this regional title," senior guard Tammi Reiss said, "but it's not as exciting as the first one - by far. Beating Tennessee [in the 1990 regional] was the thrill of our lives.
"I think we looked at [this regional] more as individual games. We're on a mission, with something out there we're waiting to achieve, so this is already behind us."
The nets they want to cut are about 3,000 miles west. \
see microfilm for box score
by CNB