THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 27, 1996 TAG: 9601270405
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
For the Old Dominion women, the game that was supposed to be different looked like more of the same.
Behind a stifling defense, the 11th-ranked Lady Monarchs continued their Colonial Athletic Association roll, romping past James Madison 67-42 at the JMU Convocation Center on Friday night.
Before the game, the JMU band shouted ``overrated'' at the Lady Monarchs (14-2, 6-0 CAA), but it was the Dukes (11-5, 4-2) who were overwhelmed by an ODU pressure defense that has been relentless all season and created 31 turnovers on Friday.
``That's a damned good team,'' said JMU coach Shelia Moorman. ``They should go play in the men's tournament. Let the eight of us have our own tournament.''
Old Dominion scored the game's first 11 points, rattling the Dukes, who missed a number of early high-percentage shots.
``When you drive, the shot looks open, but then all of the sudden you see a 6-foot-5 something-or-other coming at you,'' said Krissy Heinbaugh, who led the Dukes with 14 points. ``Then the next time you start to drive, you hesitate and start to think whether or not you should even shoot.''
JMU was never able to penetrate and drive the lane, and Sarah Schreib, who had a career-high 30 points last year when Madison ended ODU's 49-game CAA winning streak 87-80, was held to four points. ODU scored the final six points of the first half and then the first 13 of the second to open a 52-18 lead. The Dukes were so frustrated by the ODU pressure that they scorers celebrated with each bucket as if in desperation to rally their teammates.
``It's a lot of pressure, a lot of traps,'' said Holly Rilinger, who came in leading James Madison with 16 points a game but was held to seven after a 3-of-11 shooting. ``Their height advantage made it tough.''
The Lady Monarchs dominated inside the paint as well. Clarisse Machanguana was 10 of 13 from the field for 24 points to lead all scorers, and Nyree Roberts was 7 of 9 for 14 points.
Ticha Penicheiro finished with 11 assists, one short of her career high. ``Our post players, they looked like Ben Johnson,'' she said. ``I was going as fast as I could, running up the court, and I would look up and say, `Whoo, they're ahead of me!' ''
After ODU's second-half 19-0 run, Penicheiro and Rilinger exchanged body slams on successive trips down the court, and the Dukes staged a mini-rally with an 11-2 run, forgoing penetration for the perimeter. But the Lady Monarchs got the next six, and JMU never got closer than 22.
ODU coach Wendy Larry said she rarely brought up the year-ago loss in Harrisonburg this week as motivation, although ``the JMU band brought back some pleasant memories during warmup,'' she said. ``I think the first five minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second were instrumental. Krissy Heinbaugh is a fine basketball player and Sarah Schreib is a fine basketball player, and we were able to contain both of those players early.''
In the second half, the band was silent, much like the crowd of 4,100. Roberts said revenge crossed her mind only briefly.
``When I was out there during warmups, I looked around and remembered last year,'' she said. ``I said ``Nah, we're not going to go out that way again.' ''
With a grin, Penicheiro added, ``The word `overrated' came to mind.'' by CNB