THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1997 TAG: 9701180877
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG LENGTH: 74 lines
The Colonial Athletic Association's two best women's teams met Friday night at the JMU Convocation Center, and by the end of the night it was clear who was second best.
Second-ranked Old Dominion rolled over the Dukes 78-53, spoiling the fun for 6,500 fans, the most ever to watch a women's game at James Madison.
The loss snapped the Dukes' 11-game home win streak dating back to last season, a run that started after they fell to ODU. The Lady Monarchs won their 30th straight game against CAA opponents and their 79th out of 80 in league play.
``If they're the No. 2 team in the nation,'' said JMU coach Shelia Moorman, ``I don't want to play No. 1.''
The game between the league's unbeatens was billed as perhaps the final test for an ODU team that seems destined to sweep the conference for the second straight year and go into the NCAA Tournament with a 29-1 record.
In reality it was ugly basketball, with JMU (12-2, 3-1) turning the ball over 35 times and the Lady Monarchs (14-1, 4-0) struggling to find rhythm and emotion at both ends of the floor.
``For our basketball team to win some of the games that we have won, we've played with very positive emotion,'' said ODU coach Wendy Larry. ``I felt like that was really lacking tonight.''
In beating Stanford and Tennessee earlier this season, ODU has been superb. Against JMU, the Lady Monarchs were just good - yet still able to rout a team that is off to its best start in Moorman's 15 years. The Dukes, whose only other loss before tonight came against Wake Forest, hung with ODU for the first 13 minutes, until LaToya Small scored seven of her team's next nine points for a 9-2 run. By then ODU was up 30-19 with 3:40 to go in the half.
``I had shooting practice with Coach (Cindy) Fisher earlier this week,'' said Small, who scored 11 first-half points and finished with 14. ``She said my first step was so quick, I should take my shot if I had room.''
The Lady Monarchs closed out the half with a 36-22 lead, and the Dukes flirted with closing the gap somewhat in the second, trailing by 13 points and later 15. But the physical pounding inflicted by a bigger and stronger ODU team began to take its toll, despite the efforts of an undersized JMU front line led by 5-foot-11 senior Sarah Schreib.
``It's very difficult when you're physically outmatched to sustain that level,'' Moorman said. ``If I had three Sarah Schreibs, maybe that could make up for the height disadvantage, but you could see the physical fatigue our kids endured.''
The bread-and-butter pair of Clarisse Machanguana and Nyree Roberts continued to get the job done for ODU, finishing a combined 16 of 23 from the field. Roberts led all scorers with 18 points and Machanguana had 16.
The Dukes lacked no fire, scooping up every loose ball and outrebounding ODU by three. But in addition to being done in by ODU's size and athleticism, JMU did not establish a go-to player to ignite a rally. Schreib finished with 13 points and Hope Cook had 10. When asked if ODU was clearly ahead of the CAA pack, Moorman's response was ``It kind of looks that way.''
And while Larry used her bench sparingly - only Small played more than 7 minutes - Moorman subbed liberally in the game's final eight minutes. Former Salem High star Misty Colebank, now a JMU freshman, played 12 minutes, scoring four points, recovering nicely after being stripped of the ball the first two times she handled it by Ticha Penicheiro.
``You would think Wendy would try to develop her bench a little more,'' Moorman said. ``She gets up by 25 and I look out there and there's four starters late in the game. It didn't feel real good to me. I would hope I'd never do that to anybody.''
Larry said she meant no slight to JMU. Aubrey Eblin, who sprained her ankle two weeks ago, is still not full speed.
``I felt like our conditioning level was not real good,'' she said. ``It didn't have anything to do with me doing anything to James Madison.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MICHAEL REILLY/The Associated Press
Manika Herring of James Madison loses her balance and goes down
after tangling with Old Dominion's Nyree Roberts.