THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 27, 1995 TAG: 9502270126
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 129 lines
Something was wrong, terribly, terribly wrong. The 7,597 people watching at the Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, didn't know it. Neither did a national TV audience.
But Old Dominion University coach Marianne Stanley knew. After Katrina McClain's free throw gave Georgia a 30-22 lead over ODU with 4:31 left in the first half of the 1985 NCAA women's championship game, Stanley called a timeout.
``I saw fear in our players' eyes,'' she would say later.
In a game with less at stake, the hotly competitive coach might have blown a fuse. Fear? How dare they?
Hers wasn't a team that showed fear. It was one others feared.
The Lady Monarchs had an All-American forward in Medina Dixon and a near-All-American in Tracy Claxton.
It had strong role players in 6-4 center Dawn Cullen and point guard Marie Christian.
It had two freshmen who had been high school all-everythings in Adrienne Goodson and Donna Harrington.
Stanley had labeled them ``the most talented and deepest team I have ever had.'' The first day of practice, she proclaimed they would contend for the national championship.
Stanley knew something about talent and titles, having guided the Lady Monarchs to the 1979 and 1980 championships of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, which included all women's teams until they were incorporated into the NCAA before the 1981-82 season.
The Monarchs entered the game against Georgia with 30 victories and an average winning margin of 17.4 points. They opened the season 16-0, were ranked No. 1 for much of the year, and carried a nine-game winning streak into postseason. And now she saw fear?
As the players headed to the bench, Stanley's mind raced. Maybe this timidity had something to do with what had happened at breakfast that morning.
The team manager had bought newspapers from all across Texas - all of which predicted Georgia would emerge victorious. None gave ODU even a slight chance. The players had been outraged - but maybe just a little believing, Stanley told herself.
Stanley saw two options. She could try to kick-start their engine, scald them for playing like wimps in the game of their lives. Or she could be strictly business, talk strategy, and hope they would be close at halftime.
``I didn't get fiery in that game,'' Stanley recalled Sunday at the school's field house, where the 1985 championship team was honored. ``I know I told them to chill a little, settle down and play the way they were capable.''
Things got worse before they got better. Dixon, ODU's leading scorer at 16.6 and so cool she was nicknamed ``Ice Woman,'' committed her third foul. Georgia pushed its lead to nine.
But then it happened. Harrington scored off an offensive rebound. Guard Bridget Jenkins, a hero in the national semifinals against Northeast Louisiana with 18 points - 16 in an eight-minute span of the first half - drilled a baseline jumper. Jenkins hit two free throws on ODU's next possession. Christian hit a jumper 37 seconds before the buzzer.
ODU trailed, 31-30, but the fear was gone. So were Georgia's chances when Claxton addressed the team before the second-half tip.
``Tracy told them she didn't come all the way to Texas and not win a national championship,'' Stanley said. ``And I remember she issued Medina a challenge - either get going or answer to her when they got back to Norfolk.''
In the second half, the Lady Monarchs made just 17 of 41 shots. They hit just 6 of 13 free throws. But they attacked the backboards.
ODU finished with a 57-30 advantage in rebounds - 30-8 at the offensive end. Claxton pulled down 20, 12 offensive. Dixon grabbed 15.
There were 17 lead changes in the second half, but Georgia, the preseason No. 1 team and winner of 29 games, gradually wilted.
With 8:10 to play, Georgia All-American Teresa Edwards fouled out. McClain followed three minutes later.
Stanley's defense, sensing the kill, stole the ball four times in the final 3:49.
ODU also took care of business at its end. The Lady Monarchs committed 14 first-half turnovers, but just five the rest of the way.
Final score: ODU 70, Georgia 65.
``We'd played as a team the whole season, and during that game, it was like we told ourselves we had come too far to blow it now,'' said Claxton, the MVP. ``We knew if we just got on the boards we'd have 'em.''
ODU shot 34 percent from the field in the first half, and just 38 percent for the game.
``We didn't finesse anyone,'' Stanley said that day. ``We won it with defense and rebounding.''
And they won it with an end-of-game defense Dixon laughingly called ``pure junk.''
With about seven minutes to play and the teams still even, Stanley positioned the 6-3 Dixon under the basket, but assigned her no one to guard. Rather, she was free to roam underneath, while her teammates played man-to-man.
``One girl was always open to shoot, but we were banking that she either wouldn't take the shot or would miss it,'' Dixon said. ``Defense and coaching won that game.''
Dixon could have been a prodigious scorer had she been more selfish. Some friends had begun riding her for not taking more shots, but she ignored their barbs. Dixon desperately wanted a title.
``We were winning, and I was at the point where I'd rather make the final pass that finished off a play for someone else than score myself,'' Dixon said.
As it turned out, Dixon scored the game's two biggest hoops: an off-balance jumper that gave ODU the lead for good and a lefthanded layup off an inbounds play that iced the title.
``None of those kids was born with a silver spoon in their mouth,'' Stanley said. ``They earned their way in life. No gifts. No one picked us to win that game, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was what nine players and the coaches felt.'' ILLUSTRATION: 1985 NCAA Champions
10 Years Later
CHRISTOPHER REDDICK/Staff
[Color Photo]
Members of Old Dominion's 1985 NCAA championship team were honored
Sunday. From left, Lisa Blais Manning, Dawn Cullen Blais, Medina
Dixon, Adrienne Goodson, Bridget Jenkins, Donna Harrington and coach
Marianne Stanley.
File Photo
The 1985 NCAA champion Lady Monarchs made it to the White House to
present President Reagan with an Old Dominion University team
jacket. From left, Tracy Claxton, coach Marianne Stanley and Medina
Dixon.
by CNB