DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997              TAG: 9703290283

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB MOLINARO, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: CINCINNATI                        LENGTH:   75 lines

NOW, FOR THE CROWN ODU HANGS TOUGH,SHOWS TRUE GRIT IN WIN

Stacy Himes couldn't believe it.< ``No tears,'' she said with a giggle. ``I'm not crying.''

She touched her cheeks. They were dry.

Strange, thought Old Dominion's senior guard, because she cries at everything.

``When I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm worried, when I'm tired,'' she said. ``Everybody kids me that I cry too much.''

So why no tears this time? Why wasn't a hanky required after the Lady Monarchs edged Stanford 83-82 in Friday night's semifinal of the women's basketball Final Four?

ODU's overtime victory was no less than an improbable, heroic, monumental example of team tenacity.

``I couldn't cry this time,'' said Himes, ``because I just totally knew we were going to win this game.''

Excuse me? She like totally knew ODU would win?

Even after Nyree Roberts, center and second-leading scorer, fouled out with five minutes remaining in regulation?

And did Himes and her teammates totally know they would win when Mery Andrade - probably the most willful athlete at the Final Four - fouled out with 10 seconds

on the clock, allowing Stanford to hit two free throws that sent the game into overtime?

``Didn't matter,'' said Himes.

Apparently not.

Roberts left the game. Andrade left the game. But the fight never left the Lady Monarchs.

``It was a battle,'' said reserve guard Natalie Diaz, who scored 10 points, ``and we loved every minute of it.''

In the battle's final five minutes - the overtime - ODU played with forward Clarisse Machanguana and four guards, Himes included. The Lady Monarchs got it done.

``Luck is part of the game,'' said Ticha Penicheiro, ODU's All-American guard, ``and it has been on our side.''

She was talking about the frantic final seconds, when Stanford had three shots at the basket to win.

The second, a bank from about eight feet, went in and out. Stanford, though, got another rebound and tossed the ball to Jamila Wideman at the top of the key.

Wideman lined up the 3-point shot that would decide everything. Machanguana leaped in the air and appeared to come down on the Cardinal guard. No whistle. A second later, Wideman launched the shot. No good. ODU had survived.

``There was contact,'' Wideman said evenly. ``We just didn't get the call.''

Old Dominion did not appear to get the call at the start of the game. Wendy Larry's team was played off its feet the first 10 minutes and trailed by as many as 15 points.

``We were just playing dead,'' Himes said.

But if anyone thought ODU would go away quietly, they don't know this team. ``Congratulations to Old Dominion,'' Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. ``I think their team was extremely aggressive and extremely physical.''

Aggressive? ODU's best offensive play, it seems, is the put-back, the offensive rebound turned into a basket. It's a play that requires aggression. And fight. Lots of fight.

Late in the second period, Andrade did everything but go through the glass backboard to corral rebounds, turning missed shots into new opportunities. And yet when her leadership went to the bench, ODU rolled on.

Not luck, but grit, the willingness to eat glass and keep coming back for more, is what won this game for ODU.

No use wasting tears on an event as exhilarating as this one.

``I'm laughing,'' Himes said. ``Look at me, I'm laughing.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

From left, Nyree Roberts, Kelly Bradley and Mery Andrade celebrate

at the end of the Lady Monarch's 83-82 overtime victory against

Stanford Friday.

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