THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080577
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 68 lines
NORFOLK - No one could be surprised by Old Dominion's dismantling of Tennessee in women's basketball Tuesday night, not even Tennessee.
You gotta understand, nobody beats ODU 16 times in a row.
Now that the Lady Monarchs have scaled the Summitt, Coach Pat, that is, after toppling then-No. 1 Stanford in December, an announcement is in order: This concludes the competition portion of ODU's regular season.
The rest, from here to the NCAA tournament, is a ride in the HOV lane.
The remainder of ODU's schedule is easy pickings. Room service. A lock. As close to a sure thing as college hoops offer in 1997.
The road to the national playoff is paved with nary a speed bump. What remain are 17 games, counting the conference tournament, against teams from the Colonial Athletic Association.
Seventeen games, 17 victories.
ODU should win them all to finish 29-1 and, very likely, No. 1 in the polls.
A team powerful and bold enough to outplay Stanford and Tennessee is too good for the CAA. Already, ODU is working on a 28-game conference winning streak. But wait, it gets better. Wendy Larry's juggernaut has won 77 of its last 78 league games.
``I think,'' Larry said hours before ODU's 83-72 victory over Tennessee, ``that the Colonial conference has made major strides since Old Dominion entered the league.''
Sure it has. But recently, ODU has made even bigger strides, as evidenced by its victories over flashy national powers.
Tennessee, like Stanford before, offered a rare opportunity for Ticha Penicheiro and the other Lady Monarchs to show just how good they are. It's an opportunity unavailable to ODU during its CAA schedule.
Against Tennessee, Penicheiro was only brilliant, ruling the court from her point guard position and scoring 25 points, 16 in the final half, to help ODU overcome a 10-point deficit. To that she added nine assists, six rebounds and five steals.
One star turn by an All-American deserves another, in this case by Tennessee sophomore Chamique Holdsclaw, who scored 27 points on mercury moves and spinning jump shots.
Adding to the evening's theatrics was a cameo appearance by sophomore Aubrey Eblin. She came off the bench, her bad ankle supported by what looked like a snow boot, for a total of three minutes. But in the second half, she hit her only two shots, both 3-pointers, to keep Tennessee at bay.
This game was far better and more interesting than ODU's rout of Stanford in the field house.
``I was pleased with our effort,'' said Summitt, whose 10-6 team has played a tougher schedule than the New York Knicks. ``But I'm disappointed in our inside play.''
The game also was blemished, as Tennessee saw it, by a rash of whistles during a decisive stretch of the second half. The annoying stoppage in play gave credence to the theory that women's college basketball officials are paid by the call.
That most of the calls went against Tennessee is a reminder of what can befall a team on the road.
The question No. 2-ranked ODU still hasn't answered, and won't during the regular season, is how well it would do against a national power in the opponent's gym.
Larry's team caught both Stanford and Tennessee coming off big, emotional games. And in the case of Summitt's team, at the end of an eight-day road trip.
Were the roles reversed, would ODU have done as well?
We'll know more when the NCAA tournament gets here. That's when ODU's serious season resumes.