DATE: Tuesday, March 18, 1997               TAG: 9703180288

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Guy Friddell 

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

HUSTLE AND HEART: IT'S ODU BASKETBALL

``We dug deep,'' coach Wendy Larry told a fan Sunday after ODU's Lady Monarchs rallied, again and again, and defeated Purdue 69-65 in overtime to gain the Sweet 16 of the NCAA basketball tournament.

In a tribute to the ``extra-motivated'' Boilermakers who fought all-out, Larry told reporters after the game, ``The heart is an amazing thing.''

Women's basketball is amazing when played in the ODU field house before 5,000 banshees.

Cheerleaders no longer run around as of yore shaking pom poms. The dozen ODU cheerleaders - six women, six men - combine the skill of circus gymnasts with the grace of musical stars.

In August they start devising and practicing with cheerleader coach Linda Turner the 30 routines for the season opening in November.

``It's mostly a matter of balance,'' Turner said Monday.

In one towering three-decker pyramid, each of five coeds stands on the upraised hand of a youth, then lifts one leg by the ankle, gripping the partner's shoulder with the other hand, and at last lets go the shoulder, and the five are poised standing on one leg with none holding onto anybody for support.

With no net!

That routine, known as Crazy Legs, looks like an elaborate candelabra floating, then collapsing, in midair as the coeds, falling, are caught by their five partners in the Cradle, so called.

Competition among opposing cheerleading squads moves them, now and then, to run over and perform before the rival audience.

The loud crowd is made up at least 50 percent of families who yell advice to the players, whom they regard for the evening as their surrogate children.

They also scream at the referees, clad in black- and white-striped shirts - three zebras galloping among gazelles.

As for the players, they run, pass and shoot with such authority that one loses any sense of there being a disparity in the quality of play among teams of men and women.

Of course, no one among the women effects rainbow-hued hair or goes into a rage or resorts to violence or indulges in an egomaniacal show at scoring a basket. The play comes as near being pure basketball as one is likely to find.

What is evident is their devotion to the game, the school, their fans, to each other, and to coach Larry - watchful, calm-eyed on the sidelines, a high priestess garbed in black, seeming to tower on high heels over her tallest charges.

Fans pick up their idols' mannerisms. Early on, Mery Andrade bags a 3-pointer, and, ecstatic, holding her hands stiff at her sides, she does the tiniest stutter step of a dance as she starts down the floor.

During the first quarter, point guard Ticha Penicheiro half skips from one end to the other.

Preparing to shoot from the foul line, holding the ball chest high, tenses, Ticha eyes the basket and, just before she shoots, lets her shoulders go slack an instant, then fires and, most often, scores.

With less than two minutes to go and the ball heading out of bounds, Penicheiro leaps, catches it and, airborne, yells ``Time out!'' and touches her shoulder with one hand. The ref catches her signals, ODU gets the ball, the crowd roars.

Stacy Himes, striving to snare a loose ball, launches a long, level dive and gathers it in her arms, landing flat on the floor. Women players fall as gracefully as a feather, cat-like.

Over and over, there was redemption in Sunday's game. High-scoring Clarisse Machanguana missed a layup, caught the rebound and, gliding, made the basket.

In the final seconds, with the score tied at 61, Andrade took a clear shot at the basket, but the ball bounced off the rim as regulation time ran out. Tearful, she threw herself to the floor. Penicheiro helped her to the bench where her teammates crowded around, patting her, saying, ``That's all right! That's all right! You're going to get it back!''

And Andrade did after the first seconds of overtime when coach Larry looked into her face ``to make sure her eyes weren't deer eyes with headlights in them.''

On the court, Andrade took over and bagged a 3-pointer and scored again on a rebound - and victory was secure.

``If I refuse to lose, everybody has to refuse to lose because we're a team,'' Andrade told a news conference afterward.

Coach Larry said there were many lessons to be learned from watching game films as they prepared for the Mideast Regional semifinals Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind.

What we have to remember next season, starting in November, is there's no better show in Hampton Roads than the basketball teams in the resounding field house at Old Dominion University. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP/Photo

ODU guard Ticha Penicheiro maneuvers around Purdue's Ukari Figgs in

ODU's 69-65 overtime victory Sunday at the ODU field house. Coach

Wendy Larry said there were many lessons to be learned from watching

game films as the Lady Monarchs prepare for the Mideast Regional

semifinals Saturday.

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