Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 17, 1994 TAG: 9403170097
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Auburn's frontcourt scored 49 points, had 10 of the Tigers' 12 steals, outrebounded its Tech counterparts 23-18 and held Hokies center Jenny Root to a season-low three points in an East Regional first-round basketball game.
Ninth-seeded Auburn (20-9), in its 11th NCAA appearance, moves on to play at top-seeded Connecticut on Sunday. Eighth-seeded Tech (24-6) made it first NCAA appearance before the largest crowd (3,734) ever to see a women's game at Cassell Coliseum. But the Hokies' 25-game home winning streak - and seven-game overall win streak - ended when Tech got entangled in Auburn's quick, shifty zone defense.
Auburn coach Joe Ciampi said Root was one of his team's prime defensive targets. Root could tell.
"That's probably the most athletic team we've faced this year," said Root, a first-team All-Metro Conference player. "It's hard to not be able to do what you've been doing all year. Even when we got the ball inside, we wouldn't get a shot off. We had to go inside-outside."
Auburn went inside, period. Minus guard Pam Smith's 0-for-13 shooting night, Auburn made 26 of 48 field-goal attempts (54 percent). Center Danielette Coleman was 8-for-9 in the first half.
Tech's defense helped it cut the deficit to five in the second half, but back-to-back baskets by 6-3 Monique Morehouse and 6-2 Coleman plugged Tech's faucet.
Six-foot-six Margo Raubo made her first start (Morehouse had back spasms) and had 12 points on 6-for-10 shooting; she entered the game having made two of her last 15 field-goal attempts. Raubo had five of Auburn's eight blocked shots.
Coleman, the only senior in the lineup because guard A.D. Hillsman was serving a one-game suspension for fighting, finished with a season-high 24 points.
"I just felt like I had to step my game up," Coleman said. "I was really focused."
Tech's offense was blurry much of the game. The Hokies committed 21 turnovers, many on lazy cross-court passes or forced entry passes to the post. Thirteen came in the second half; 10 of those were after Tech pulled to 50-43 with 9 minutes, 5 seconds left.
"We just got a little impatient against [the zone]," said Tech coach Carol Alfano, who was unable to record her 250th victory. "You start trying to attack too quickly. We tried to pass the ball from outside the 3-point line into the post, and you can't do that against Auburn."
It wasn't that Tech couldn't figure out what to do against Auburn's zone; it was that the Hokies never realized what they couldn't do. Tech kept trying to force the ball inside, or toss skip passes that long Auburn fingers at the end of long Auburn arms plucked from the air.
The Tigers led the Southeastern Conference in field-goal percentage defense and scoring defense; Auburn also averaged eight steals per game.
"They kind of lull you into this sense of security, and you think you're going to be able to reverse the ball," said Tech's Christi Osborne, who had 22 points. "That was one thing we're not used to."
Too, they weren't used to the noise created when Tech sprinted to leads of 7-0 and 10-4. Auburn regrouped, and outscored Tech 20-12 in the last 9 1/2 minutes of the first half to take a seven-point halftime lead.
That advantage soon reached 11, 44-33 with 17:44 left, and Tech seemed out of it. Auburn led 50-39 with 12:10 left before the Hokies' defensive activity started bothering the Tigers, who went scoreless 5:44 as Tech inched closer.
Stephanie Carter's basket underneath made it 50-45 Auburn with 6:54 left. At the 4:08 mark, Osborne's 3-pointer made it 53-48.
The Hokies' Angela Donnell took her turn trying to shoot past Raubo and saw the attempt blocked. The teams traded turnovers before Coleman's low turnaround with 2:30 left put Auburn back up by seven.
The Tigers apparently weren't worried about the offensive drought.
"When we can stay defensively in the game, we'll be pretty good," Samantha Williams said.
by CNB