THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603160490
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Old Dominion, the class of the Colonial Athletic Association, meets Holy Cross, the class of the Patriot League, tonight at 8:37 in the first round of the women's NCAA East Regional at the ODU field house.
The survivor meets the Mississippi-Toledo winner Monday at 8 p.m. at the field house. The Lady Rebels and Rockets play tonight at 6.
ODU, a No. 2 seed in the East, and Holy Cross, a No. 15 seed, have never met, although they share a common ground. Sixth-ranked ODU (27-2) swept the conference in the regular season and captured its fifth straight CAA crown. Holy Cross (23-9) won its third league title in four years.
``It will be interesting to see how well, after coming off one of the finest conference tournament games that we played, we can adjust to this level of competition,'' said ODU coach Wendy Larry. ``We're excited about playing Holy Cross, who has just dominated their conference as well.''
But the similarities stop there. Holy Cross enters the game a huge underdog against a team that is regarded as ODU's best since winning the national championship 11 years ago. The Lady Monarchs have won 17 straight and are second in the nation in scoring margin and scoring defense. ODU also boasts a significant size advantage over the Crusaders, whose tallest player is 6-foot-2. The Lady Monarchs are led by 6-5 Clarisse Machanguana (18.9 ppg, 6.7 rpg).
``At first we thought we'd put Kim (Lynch) and Lauren (Maney) on top of each other,'' joked Holy Cross coach Bill Gibbons about his two starting guards, who are 5-2 and 5-4, respectively. ``We really can't try to match up height-wise or athletically, so we have to try some tricks to slow the game down and throw some different looks at them.''
Holy Cross, led by Maney with 17.7 points per game, has outscored its opponents by an average score of 72-58. The Crusaders have won 10 of 12, last losing to Bucknell 75-60 on Feb. 24.
Both teams were beaten in last year's NCAA first round. Holy Cross fell to Colorado and ODU lost to Florida International.
The Lady Monarchs, making their 13th appearance in the 15-year history of the women's NCAA tournament, have not been challenged since a Jan. 11 loss at Tennessee. They have won 23 consecutive at home and have outscored opponents by an average of 84-56. But point guard Ticha Penicheiro said ODU is prepared, if necessary, to win a close game thanks to their occasional practices against a makeshift men's squad.
``We do different things like three minutes on the clock; we're up by three and they have possession, or we're tied, or we're down,'' she said. ``But we don't want to let the game get any closer.''
Larry said Machanguana, hindered by a sore ankle since the CAA semifinal against American, went through a good practice Thursday and will be ready.
``It was certainly a godsend, the days we had off so she could get well,'' Larry said. by CNB