THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702100149
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 62 lines
American University coach Jeff Thatcher said all he wanted his team to do was make a statement against second-ranked Old Dominion on Sunday afternoon. And the Lady Monarchs punctuated that statement in typical style, routing the Lady Eagles 94-57 at the ODU field house.
Still Thatcher and his crew boarded the bus back to Washington with some sense of accomplishment in the 37-point loss, outrebounding the Lady Monarchs in the second half to go with 41 points that made the score slightly more reflective of the Lady Eagles' effort.
``The first game against them we were just pathetic,'' said guard Kari Gaskins, referring to a 103-49 blowout last month. ``This time I think we made a statement. I think they're a little banged up, a little bruised up. I think we earned a little more respect than what we had. I don't think we earned any respect in the first game; they just trampled over us.''
Three players finished with double-doubles for the Lady Monarchs: Nyree Roberts with 17 points and 10 rebounds, Clarisse Machanguana, 15 points and 14 rebounds and
Ticha Penicheiro, 13 points, 11 assists. And reserve LaToya Small was just a basket away, tallying 10 rebounds and eight points. Roberts also blocked six shots.
ODU (21-1, 11-0), boosted by two 3-pointers by Mery Andrade and one by Stacy Himes, led 22-9 after 10 minutes and a 16-0 run buried American from there. Held to just 20 percent shooting from the field, the Lady Eagles (12-8, 5-5) managed just 16 first-half points to ODU's 49.
``We were disappointed with how we competed in the first 30 minutes,'' Thatcher said. ``We got some good looks at the basket; we were just rushing a little bit. Even the 3s in the perimeter, we were jumping the gun.''
Six minutes into the second half, an altercation broke out between Small and Gaskins that ended before it ever really developed. No fouls were called in the incident that looked as if it resulted from a physical play, but ODU coach Wendy Larry embarked on a team discussion about it afterward.
``We've never had that situation before,'' Larry said. ``So we talked about it and the implications if somebody got a flagrant technical foul as far as how it would affect this team.''
And while American perked up in the second half, it was against ODU lineups comprised mainly of the bench. All the subs but walk-on Angela Carter and Nicole Bellinghausen played in doubles minutes. Larry put Machanguana and Roberts back in with eight minutes left, but even that was part of her strategy of looking ahead.
``We're going to try and take our starters off the floor and bring them into a bench role,'' Larry said. ``We tried to do some of that today. If they had to sit because of foul trouble or whatever, can they come back and make an immediate impact? It will be great to break the film down and look at that situation.''
It was hard to gauge much in those minutes as the game turned into a foul fest with 28 second-half fouls.
Gaskins' 13 points led American and Mary Klima scored 11. The Lady Monarchs' lead ballooned to 52 points eight minutes into the second period. ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
The Virginian-Pilot
Nyree Roberts of Old Dominion, left, looks for an opening against
the tight defense of American's Kim Gombola.