Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 17, 1995 TAG: 9503180051
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
If anyone associated with the Virginia women's basketball team got a minute of sleep Thursday night, it was a bigger upset than the one Dartmouth almost pulled off.
The Big Green turned out to be the scariest thing to emerge from New England since the latest Stephen King novel, sending chills down the spines of the heavily favored Cavaliers before falling 71-68 in the NCAA Tournament at University Hall.
Dartmouth (16-11) led 54-53 with 9:15 left and was down three points when Sally Annis buried a 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds remaining, but the Cavs successfully inbounded the ball to make their escape in the East Region first-round game.
Virginia (25-4), which won its 54th consecutive home game, will entertain Florida at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The Gators routed Radford 89-49 in the first game here Thursday.
Chris Wielgus, Dartmouth's coach, arrived at the postgame news conference with her seniors - Ilsa Webeck, Brandi Jones, Betsy Gilmore and Laurie Stucker - and immediately received an unabashed round of applause from those assembled.
``We're disappointed,'' said Gilmore, a point guard who had six assists while playing all 40 minutes. ``It was our game. That should have been a 'W' for Dartmouth.''
Virginia was like the felon who goes to the gallows but the rope breaks.
``March Madness,'' said Virginia forward Wendy Palmer, the ACC player of the year, who scored 17 of her 26 points in the first half.
Dartmouth buried nine 3-pointers, going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc in the second half as it chipped away at a Cavaliers lead that had grown to 15 points, 44-29, a minute before halftime. Annis had three 3-pointers in the last 6:29 of the game and finished with 15 points.
Jones added 20 points and Jen Stamp had 10 as the Big Green pulled together to take up the slack caused when its big players, Webeck and Stucker, got into foul trouble. Webeck a 6-foot-4 center played only 15 minutes before fouling out with eight points and five rebounds.
``This isn't the first time; we've been in [foul trouble] before,'' Wielgus said.
Webeck collected her third personal foul with 10:34 left in the first half and took a seat. Palmer finished a 7-0 run to make the score 25-13, but Dartmouth responded with a 3-pointer by Bess Tortolani that sparked a 9-2 charge. The teams parried before Virginia's Monick Foote came on to score six of her nine first-half points in the final 2:09 to put the Cavaliers up 44-31 at the break.
The harder Virginia played, the steadier Dartmouth became.
``We knew we weren't the underdog they were making us out to be,'' Stucker said.
``Dartmouth played a great game,'' said Debbie Ryan, Virginia's coach. ``It shouldn't be what Virginia didn't do; it was what Dartmouth did.''
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
by CNB