THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 5, 1996 TAG: 9601050577
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Old Dominion forward Mery Andrade makes a point of telling you she's not a natural scorer. Never mind the MVP trophy the sophomore took home from last weekend's Louisville tournament after scoring 52 points in two games.
She shrugs, shaking her ponytail. ``That was Christmas,'' says Andrade, who will start tonight for the 16th-ranked Lady Monarchs (8-1) when they take on Texas at the ODU field house.
Maybe. But Santa isn't the only one who has a hand in Andrade's scoring success this season. The CAA player of the week, Andrade averages 14.8 points per game, second on the team to Clarisse Machanguana, and she is third in the CAA in 3-pointers at 52 percent.
Still, she says, ``I like everything about defense. Blocks, steals. My coaches used to say the best offense was a good defense, making the other team fail.''
Lady Monarchs coach Wendy Larry expected Andrade to have an immediate impact. ``I definitely knew by evaluating her that she was one of the best defensive players I had seen without having had college experience,'' Larry said. ``Her scoring has been a result of her defense.''
In ODU's first few games, Andrade didn't even look for the basket. She'd be heading down the court with her good buddy Ticha Penicheiro and suddenly - bam! - one of Penicheiro's vintage no-look passes would be whizzing toward her.
``Now when she has the ball, I pay attention every time,'' Andrade says. ``Her balls kept hitting me in the face. Now I always keep my hands up.''
Penicheiro's creative style is nothing new for Andrade. Natives of Portugal, they were teammates on the Portuguese national team, both participating in the 1995 World University Games in Japan. And back in '91, when ODU assistant Allison Greene played for the Portuguese National League, Penicheiro caught her eye. And so did Andrade. Greene followed Andrade's progress for the next four years, urging her to join her old roommate Penicheiro at ODU.
Purdue coach Rick Fox was calling, too. Andrade piqued his interest after Fox conducted a clinic in Portugal. But the Norfolk pavement beat out the West Lafayette, Ind., cornfields.
Penicheiro was a big part of Andrade's decision.
``Ticha is really my friend. She is one of the persons that contributed to my evolution,'' says Andrade, who speaks softly but with excellent English. ``I'm not a good dribbler. I'm working on it. If Ticha played me defense, I'd protect the ball because she's smart, and she's like this,'' explains Andrade with a quick imitation of Penicheiro's focused stance that feeds into her cat-like quickness.
Penicheiro has learned from Andrade, as well.
``I love the way Mery plays,'' Penicheiro says. ``She gets real focused in the game; she plays real hard. . . . She made me realize defense is important, too.''
Andrade admits to having trouble adjusting to speaking English most of the time and traveling so much with a full college schedule. Even writing her name is a transition. When she gathered her documents to move to the U.S., she saw her birth certificate had her first name spelled with an ``e'' instead of an ``a''. A typo, her mother said, but Andrade adopted the new spelling.
``Sometimes I make a mistake and still write an `a,' '' she confesses.
She's a pre-med major who plans to be a doctor or teacher but is modest about her hoop skills. As a kid, she played soccer, handball and volleyball, not picking up her first basketball until she was 14. Out playing street ball with the boys, she was spotted by the coach of the Portuguese national team.
Andrade didn't even know what a national team was. ``I just realized after the first game; it was against Spain and they won by a whole lot of points. Then it was like `Oh, my God. This is a national team.' ''
Andrade wasn't used to set plays, or competing with girls, for that matter. ``Boys are more physical,'' she says. ``With boys, there's no need to say `I'm sorry.' On two teams, I was the only girl, and they'd say, `Don't touch her. Let her do what she wants.' I'd say `All right,' catch the ball and be physical, and they'd say `You're not a girl.' ''
That physical style, Andrade says, helped her match up against Georgia's La'Keshia Frett when the Lady Monarchs upset the Lady Bulldogs in November.
``I knew the moves she makes, what she likes, what she doesn't like,'' Andrade says. ``I knew she doesn't like to play physical, so I played physical.''
That style serves her best all the time, unless the referees get in the way.
``Sometimes I get frustrated because the refs have a different concept of things here, and it's different than Portugal.'' Pausing, she adds, ``Like traveling. I don't like that call.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Motoya Nakamura, The Virginian-Pilot
Old Dominion forward Mery Andrade, right, shares a laugh with
teammate Amber Eller after practice Thursday.
by CNB