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ODU advances Berthieu leads No. 4 seed to win over SMU
Posted: Monday March 20, 2000 10:48 PM
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Even with only nine players, Old Dominion was deeper than Southern Methodist. "Old Dominion can play eight or nine players in a game. It showed today when we had so many players foul out," said Mustangs coach Rhonda Rompola, who had two players foul out and two more with four fouls apiece as the Lady Monarchs defeated SMU 96-76 Monday night in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional. "It's one thing to be deep on the bench and it's another to have a lot of playing experience," said Rompola, who played for Old Dominion from 1978-1981 before playing for SMU her senior year. The fourth-seeded Lady Monarchs had a 50-34 rebounding edge over 12th-seeded SMU, fueled by 20 rebounds by Hamchetou Maiga. "The board effort I thought was significant, starting with Hamchetou,' Old Dominion coach Wendy Larry said. 'Overall, we attacked when we were on offense and defense." The Lady Monarchs (29-4) went on a 9-3 run to close the first half ahead 37-30, but the Mustangs (22-9) twice narrowed the gap to five after the break. Old Dominion then expanded its lead to 18 with a 16-3 run over three minutes -- capped by a 3-pointer by Natalie Diaz -- to make the score 72-54 with about six minutes to go. Diaz had seven of her 19 points in that stretch. Old Dominion shut down SMU's post players for about 51/2 minutes in the second half. "We had our hands full," said SMU forward Katie Remke, who was held to six points. "We didn't do our jobs as post players. We were fired up and I thought we'd do a good job. We didn't show up on the inside." The Lady Monarchs shot 50 percent from the floor to the Mustangs' 40 percent. Lucienne Berthieu led Old Dominion with 22 points. She was 12-of-19 from the free-throw line in her second game back since spraining her right shoulder two minutes into a game against William and Mary on Feb. 18. "I feel like I spent my night on the foul line," Berthieu said. "If I could finish better that would be best." Maiga added 15 points for Old Dominion. Alli Spence had 11 and Okeisha Howard had 10. D-dra Rucker led the Mustangs with 27 points. Anika Calvert
added 16 and Nici Johnson had 11.
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