THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503020625
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry shuffled her lineup from the opening tip, resulting in an ugly first half as the Lady Monarchs meandered to an 85-76 conference win over George Mason at the ODU field house.
``Any time you have to deal with disciplinary action, it's hard. Everything's out of sync,'' Larry said. ``It makes for a sloppy game.''
Sarah Willyerd and five other players violated unspecified team policies. Willyerd was replaced in the starting lineup by freshman Kelly Bradley. Senior guard Amy Rowley, normally the sixth or seventh player off the bench, was one of Larry's first substitutes. Willyerd played just six minutes.
The Patriots (8-17, 6-7 in the Colonial Athletic Association) stayed with ODU for the first 10 minutes. The Lady Monarchs led by seven with 1:38 left before the break, but Kerry Chaconas nailed a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left to cut ODU's lead to 31-27 at halftime.
The Lady Monarchs' Shonda Deberry took matters into her own hands when ODU retook the floor. She hit a 3-pointer to open the half and sank a midrange jumper on the Lady Monarchs' next possession to bump ODU's lead up to nine, 36-27. Deberry hit two more treys during the next six minutes as ODU built a 14-point lead, 55-41, at the 12:44 mark.
With Deberry hitting from the perimeter, center Nyree Roberts continued to punish the smaller GMU defenders inside. The 6-3 freshman muscled into the lane and converted several layups in traffic for a career-high 17 points.
Although Old Dominion (23-5, 12-1) extended its lead to as much as 16 points, the Patriots refused to wither.
Down by 14, Krista Jay nailed a 3-pointer, and Gretchen Lacey stole the inbounds pass for a lauyp as GMU cut the lead to single digits, 75-66, with 3:20 left to play. But the Lady Monarchs scored six of their final eight points on free throws to stay in control.
Chaconas, who leads the league in scoring with a 19.4 average, finished with 14, all but three in the second half. Lacey led all scorers with a game-high 19.
Deberry finished with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting, including 3 for 3 from behind the 3-point arc. Ticha Penicheiro added 14 points and tied a career high with 10 assists. by CNB