THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603240185
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
In the stands, the fight was between the pep bands and the fans who tried to outyell each other with the kind of boisterous chants worthy of any intrastate rivalry.
But on the court, Virginia won the only fight that mattered, beating Old Dominion 72-60 in the NCAA women's Sweet 16 Saturday afternoon at University Hall.
Third-seeded Virginia (26-6) will play No. 1 seed Tennessee, a 92-71 winner over Kansas, at 5 p.m. Monday for the East Regional title and a spot in the Final Four. Second-seeded Old Dominion ended its season with a 29-3 record, the best for the Lady Monarchs in a decade.
ODU rallied from 10 points down in the second half for a 52-49 lead at the 9:13 mark, but U.Va. answered on the scoreboard and on the boards. Freshman DeMya Walker and sophomore Monick Foote combined for 25 points and 19 rebounds as the Cavaliers embarked on a 14-2 run that was a final blow to a storybook year for ODU.
``Virginia fought back and we didn't fight back when they got ahead,'' said senior Sarah Willyerd. ``We just kind of laid back and relaxed. They just took over and we didn't step up.''
ODU looked ready for a shutout, up 7-0 in the opening five minutes, until Foote's turnaround jumper in the lane gave U.Va. its first points. Foote hit her first 3-point to tie the game at 11, but ODU went back up by six as the Cavalier, battling what coach Debbie Ryan called ``a case of the jitters,'' began to find their rhythm. Another 3-pointer, this one by Tora Suber, tied the score at 21, and Virginia took its first lead with Suber's jumper from the left wing at the 4:19 mark.
``We were getting good shots; we just weren't connecting,'' said Suber, who finished 7 of 17 from the field and 10 of 12 from the line to lead all scorers with 26 points. ``But we knew it would come.''
It did. Virginia wrapped up the first half with a 10-4 run - helped by Suber nailing three free throws after Amber Eller fouled her on the perimeter - and went into intermission up 33-28.
ODU hadn't trailed at the half since a Jan. 11 loss to Tennessee, and although Virginia took at 10-point lead to open the half, the Lady Monarchs clawed back with patient play in the paint.
Esther Benjamin hit a pair of free throws to tie things again at 44, and ODU was in pretty good shape at the 12-minute mark. Walker had picked up her third and fourth personals in less than a minute, and Foote's fourth personal came early in the period.
But Ryan didn't lose faith in either player, and both played the final 10 minutes without picking up a foul.
``I just made a decision at the 12-minute mark to put Monick back in,'' Ryan said. ``I tried different players, but I didn't have a choice. You try to go as long as you can before you put a player in with four fouls, but I figured if I was going to wait any longer, we might not win the game.''
Virginia got the lead back, ignited by Foote's 3-pointer, and capped by Jenny Boucek, who hit a reverse layup and then sank a free throw after being fouled by Mery Andrade to complete the three-point play with 7:14 left. Up 54-52, Foote and Walker took care of the boards, and Suber hit 7 of her last 8 free throws to seal the win.
``The problem was rebounding,'' said Clarisse Machanguana, who scored seven points, marking the first time in 40 consecutive games that she was not in double figures. ``We would play a really gy would y for an 30 seconds or until they scored.''
Wendy Palmer, held to 2-for-13 shooting from the field for eight points, said U.Va. never forgot how important good boards can be. Palmer also had 12 rebounds.
``Checkouts and rebounding and playing great D,'' she said. ``We write that on our hands, so every time we look down, we see it.''
In addition to Virginia shutting down ODU's post players - Machanguana, Roberts and Angie Liston combined for 16 points - Boucek took care of Ticha Penicheiro. Larry said Penicheiro was on antibiotics battling a throat infection, and Penicheiro lamented her lack of aggressive play.
``So often Ticha sets the tone,'' Larry said. ``I didn't see that love of the battle, that intensity in her eyes today.''
Roberts said Old Dominion was never able to regain the kind of focus it had in the opening minutes.
``I think at the beginning of the game, we came out with a lot of intensity,'' she said. ``A couple minutes into the game, they hadn't scored. There was a timeout and they hadn't scored. But we came back and our intensity level dropped. . . . We just have to keep our intensity up for the whole game; we haven't learned to do that.''
Afterward, it was a tearful scene in the locker room, particularly between Penicheiro and Andrade, whose 17 points led ODU. A season that included a filfth consecutive Colonial Athletic Association championship and the best showing in the NCAA tournament since the 1985 national championship year came to a close in probably the worst possible setting.
Looking around at the empty seats afterward, Willyerd said she wasn't sure if the end of her career had really sunk in.
``In a way it has,'' she said. ``I guess it will really hit me when I don't have to go to practice.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Virginia's Tora Suber, who led all scorers with 26 points, whoops it
up near the end of the Cavaliers' 72-60 conquest of Old Dominion.
Photo
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Old Dominion reserve Aubrey Eblin can't bear to watch the final
moments of Saturday's 72-60 loss to Virginia in the NCAA East
Regional semifinal.
by CNB