Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503280018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: STORRS, CONN. LENGTH: Long
Virginia knocked the King Kong of women's college basketball to one knee Saturday.
But when the final bell of the NCAA East Region championship fight sounded, the beast was standing tall with arms raised.
Author of 32 consecutive knockouts this season, unbeaten and heretofore untested Connecticut collected itself late and held on for a tough 67-63 decision over heavy underdog UVa.
The victory earned UConn (33-0), the tournament's No. 1 seed, its second trip to the NCAA women's Final Four. The Huskies, who were beaten by the Cavaliers in the 1991 semifinals, will meet the West Region winner - either Purdue or Stanford - in next Saturday's semifinals. The title game will be played next Sunday.
Geno Auriemma's Huskies head to Minnesota on the heels of the scare of their lives. UVa (27-5), thanks to an incredible 34-8 run in the final 10 minutes of the first half, was up seven at halftime (44-37) and led 53-51 with 101/2 minutes to play.
``We had them where we wanted them,'' said Debbie Ryan, Virginia's coach. ``We had them backpedaling a little bit, because I don't think they've been in that situation all year.''
After UConn countered with a 15-4 run the next six minutes to seemingly put UVa away, the Cavaliers got up off the canvas for more punch.
Wendy Palmer, who had a game-high 20 points and 12 rebounds, scored six unanswered points to trim UConn's seemingly safe nine-point lead to 66-63 with 2:05 left.
Thanks to some good inside denial defense that forced three straight perimeter misses by UConn, UVa had three possessions to tie, but couldn't deliver.
The first two possession were stopped by UConn's inside trees, 6-foot-7 Kara Wolters, who snuffed Palmer in the lane with 1:13 left, and 6-4 Rebecca Lobo, who returned Jenny Boucek's layup attempt with 54 seconds showing.
The Cavs' third and last chance came with 19.6 seconds left. But UVa's monumental upset hopes ended when freshman Monick Foote was called for a 5-second violation while trying to inbound the ball at UConn's end.
``I thought the best chance there was let Monick bring the ball in and run her for the 3,'' Ryan said. ``I thought Monick had the timeout in time. It was so loud in there I don't know if [official Art Bomengen] could hear. She was calling it first, then she had to signal it. I thought it was an awful quick 5 [seconds], but I'm not going to second guess one of the best officials in our game.''
UConn's Jamelle Elliott then floored UVa, hitting one of two free throws with 18.1 left to make it a four-point game.
Afterwards, a Virginia club that was given no chance on the top-dog Huskies' home Gampel Pavilion court could only talk about what might have been.
``We had our chances to win,'' Ryan said. ``We just made a few mistakes that obviously were the difference in the game.''
Ryan said it was no consolation simply to come close against a UConn team that had crushed everything in its path before Saturday. The Huskies' closest call until Saturday was a 10-point win over Kansas in Kansas City in late January. UConn had pummeled its first 32 opponents by an average of 34.1 points per game.
``We honestly came in here thinking we could win,'' Ryan said. ``Psychologically, everything was in our favor. If you're going to hold Connecticut 23 points below its normal scoring average, you control the boards [43-41, UVa], you expect to win that game.
``We didn't come in here thinking we were going to be close. We came in here thinking we were going to win.''
That thought appeared impossible 10 minutes into the game. The Huskies bit the stunned Cavs with a 29-10 run to open the game. The UConn flurry was keyed by nine layups, most coming off transition after UVa missed shots, and back-to-back-to-back 3's by Jennifer Rizzotti, Elliott and Carlo Berube.
Just like that it was over. Only one problem. Nobody told UVa.
In one of the unlikeliest flip-flops in NCAA women's history, UVa proceeded to score 34 of the final 42 points of the half. The Cavs' sudden takeover was led by reserve forward Amy Lofstedt, who didn't miss a shot en route to 12 first-half points.
``We fought our way back and I'm sure they were surprised by that,'' Palmer said.
Surprised wasn't exactly the word to describe an UConn unit that had been unfamiliar with the term ``halftime deficit'' before Saturday.
``I don't know how we won the game; I don't know how Virginia lost. As well as they played for that 10-minute stretch ... That's the best I've ever seen anybody play ever against us or anybody else,'' said Auriemma, an UVa assistant under Ryan from 1981-85.
``Yes, I think we definitely lost our composure. We couldn't make a shot in the run [3-of-15] and they just thoroughly outplayed us in that stretch.''
UConn started the second half just like the first - smoking. The Huskies went on an immediate 12-5 run to tie it at 49 with 12:43 to play.
UVa, which had hit 10 of 18 shots in its incredible run to close the first half, missed 15 of its first 18 shots and finished 7-of-27 for the final 20 minutes.
``Their defense stepped up and made it tough for our offense,'' Ryan said. ``We just needed to play better offensively. We played well enough defensively, just look at Lobo's statistics.''
Lobo, the national player of the year, managed only eight points of 3-of-12 shooting. She did have six of UConn's 11 blocks. Wolters, who led UConn with 18 points, had the other five.
``If we had a couple players play just a little better, we win this game,'' Ryan said. ``The thing that's so disappointing is that we did everything we could to win this game and didn't.''
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
by CNB