THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512170195
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GERRY BOURBEAU, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: PISCATAWAY, N.J. LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
For a while, the Old Dominion women's basketball team looked as out of its league as it did last week in a 97-40 exhibition loss to the U.S. National Team.
But after stumbling through the first 16 minutes of Saturday's game with Rutgers, a self-imposed wake-up call put the Lady Monarchs on the right track, and their hounding defense fueled a late second-half run that propelled them to a 69-53 win over the Scarlet Knights at the Rutgers Athletic Center.
The meeting was the first regular-season game for the 4-1 Lady Monarchs since a 97-76 pounding at Stanford Dec. 1. It was also the first win ever in the state of New Jersey for ODU coach Wendy Larry.
``The ironic thing is, we've played much better here (in New Jersey) and lost . . . and that's not a knock on Rutgers,'' Larry said. ``We were a tad bit rusty, I think, and it certainly wasn't pretty; to turn the ball over 25 times and win, that's pretty amazing. It took us awhile to get going, but we did the things we had to do in order to win.''
For the Lady Monarchs, that means playing their hearts out on defense. And they certainly did that, forcing 30 Rutgers turnovers, including five shot-clock violations. They converted those Rutgers miscues into 28 points on the other end.
``Thirty turnovers, that's amazing,'' said Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer. ``They have such great athletes and great size, and Wendy did a great job preparing them. They could've really drilled us if they wanted to.''
Stringer's team actually did a nice job of keeping pace during the early going, taking advantage of ODU turnovers and holding its own on the boards against a much bigger Lady Monarchs squad. When Susan Blauser hit the second of two free throws with 5:55 to play in the half, it gave the Scarlet Knights a 19-17 lead and gave the 1,291 fans in attendance reason to believe this one would go down to the wire.
But that all changed quickly as the Lady Monarchs responded with a 15-3 run over those final minutes of the half to leave the floor with a 32-22 lead. ODU's trapping halfcourt defense was at its most menacing during that decisive stretch, forcing its hosts into three shot-clock violations in a matter of three minutes. The Lady Monarchs turned Rutgers turnovers into nine points during that spurt.
The Scarlet Knights did throw a bit of a scare into the Lady Monarchs at the start of the second half, putting together a quick 6-0 run to cut the margin to six, 34-28. But Larry called a quick timeout with 17:58 to go, and got things under control again. An 8-0 ODU run out of that timeout all but finished off the Scarlet Knights.
``I think they just needed a quick reminder of just how important the first five minutes of the second half are, and how important it is to take care of business, especially on the road. I think they got the message,'' Larry said. by CNB