not what you thought it would be.....

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Alana Beard made top-ranked Duke look like a one-woman team Thursday night, and was so good that one woman was enough.


Beard scored a Duke-record 41 points and hit two free throws after a questionable foul call near midcourt with eight-tenths of a second to play, lifting the Blue Devils to a 60-59 victory against Virginia.


"Alana is everything everybody says she is,'' Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "She's in a league by herself in comparisons with players across the country. She's the type of player that wins games for you.''


The Blue Devils (14-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) maintained the best start in school history only because Beard was so brilliant, scoring 27 of her team's 37 second-half points, including the last six.


But Beard, like coach Gail Goestenkors, wasn't up to gushing.


"I knew that I needed to take over at a certain point,'' Beard said. "I think it was in the first half when I saw that no one was really hitting shots and we weren't attacking the basket like we are supposed to.''


In the first half, Beard was 6-for-11 from the field, her teammates 0-for-15. Overall in the game, she was 16-for-30, her teammates 3-for-29.


"She pulled our team through,'' said Iciss Tillis, who had six points.


The officials helped a bit, too.


Virginia (5-8, 0-3), coming off a loss at Wake Forest that ended a 49-game winning streak against the Demon Deacons, led almost throughout and seemed to have the victory secure when Beard missed in the final seconds.


But as the ball caromed toward midcourt, Beard gave chase and so did Karen Jaeger, who was whistled for a foul with 0:00.8 on the clock.


"Karen was shoved down the court. She fell. They called a foul,'' Ryan said, careful not to say anything inflammatory. "I don't want to talk about the call. The official might have had a better (view) than I did.


"I really felt like the game was over.''


Goestenkors said she watched tape and saw a foul, but agreed that near midcourt with her back to the basket, even Beard couldn't have done much.


Beard calmly swished both shots despite the jeering noise of angry fans, and the Cavaliers couldn't get off a desperation shot at the end.


"We escaped,'' Goestenkors said.


Beard also grabbed 10 rebounds and was 8-for-10 from the foul line.


The Cavaliers, who played without scoring leaders Cherrise Graham and Brandi Teamer, both suspended for the game for violating team rules, lost their fourth in a row and sixth in seven games. Ryan still said the game was the Cavaliers' best of the season, and one they hope to build on.


"You can take a lot of positives from a game like this,'' she said. "These kind are winners in my mind. I think they grew up a lot tonight.''


Ryan declined to specify what rules Teamer and Graham broke, but said Teamer's suspension is over and that Graham's will continue indefinitely.


Anna Crosswhite led Virginia with 13 points and Safia Grant-Fairley had 12, including the shot that for a time looked like a game-winner.


Beard had given Duke its second lead with 48 seconds left when she stole a pass intended for Tiffany Sardin and drove for a layup that made it 58-57. But Grant-Fairley responded with another driving bank with 35.5 seconds left, whipping the crowd of 4,172 into an upset-seeking frenzy.


But Beard wasn't finished, and drew high praise from her coach.


"Maybe it's her best game. I don't know,'' Goestenkors said. "I'll have to sit back and watch it as a fan maybe sometime. I think right now I am too discouraged with the overall team effort to focus on what Alana did.''

well that's a surprise with the nerds that go to that school. Someone must have slipped and fell in it. :D

gmaniac1 Wrote:well that's a surprise with the nerds that go to that school. Someone must have slipped and fell in it. :D

Everytime we go to Charlottesville, it's true that you do see a lot of nerds walking the streets. :laugh:

Tasha

Tasha Wrote:

gmaniac1 Wrote:well that's a surprise with the nerds that go to that school.  Someone must have slipped and fell in it. :D

Everytime we go to Charlottesville, it's true that you do see a lot of nerds walking the streets. :laugh:

Tasha

Poor UVA girls, I mean even a nerdy chick can be sexy or at least do-a-ble. However, a nerdy guy, well, that is another story. :snore:

In the words of Jeff Spicolli (Fast Times At Ridgemont High), Mr. Hand is a pretty cool dude!

That article was the most biased I have ever seen come from the usually objective AP.

BTW, Alana=NCAA POY Her only comp is Taurasi, and when they play soon, you'll see who is the best.

Nate, for a freakin official to call a foul with 1 second on the clock when two players are going for the ball, 20 feet from the basket needs to be pointed out. It was a royal screwing.

rickheel Wrote:Nate, for a freakin official to call a foul with 1 second on the clock when two players are going for the ball, 20 feet from the basket needs to be pointed out. It was a royal screwing.

My ******... It was debatable, but it was by no means a sure no-call.

Horse ****** call made by a piece of ****** ref. The refs in the womes games are horrible. You know damn well a good ref does not make that call.

rickheel Wrote:Horse ****** call made by a piece of ****** ref. The refs in the womes games are horrible. You know damn well a good ref does not make that call.

Did you see the game?

According to some people who did, Alana had a realistic chance at hitting a game winner (40 ft. is not impossible at all) and the UVA girl fouled her.

You dookies need to take off the dark blue blinders. If you thought the ref did not screw UVA, you are not as bright as I thought. Two players chasing a loose ball 25 feet from the basket, moving away from the basket, one second left, and a ref calls a foul!!!!!!!! Horseshit call made by a piss poor ref. :rolleyes:

Again, did you see it? Because from other people's point of view, the play was different than you've been describing it.

Nate, there was a picture in the Richmond paper showing their backs to the basket, moving away from the basket. I spoke with someone who was at the game and they could not believe the call. It was a no call. The refs gave the game to Duke.

rickheel Wrote:Nate, there was a picture in the Richmond paper showing their backs to the basket, moving away from the basket. I spoke with someone who was at the game and they could not believe the call. It was a no call. The refs gave the game to Duke.

I saw the picture, also, and it was misleading. So you weren't at the game... thank you.

It's also a truism in athletics that if you put yourself in the position to be screwed by the refs in an end of game situation, you have no room to b*tch.

It is also a truism that the players should win the game, not the refs. The whole point is, and always will be in my mind, is the call should have NEVER been made. The ref won the game for Duke.

Whatever, this is going nowhere. I'm through.

No, you are just wrong.

So I take it you were at the game, nate? Didn't think so. If I were you, I'd take more stock in comments from people who were in attendance (such as rick's contact), since you can not interpret the picture any better than a non-Duke fan.

I saw the replay at the halftime of FSN's broadcast of the State-UVa women's game. It was a bad call, plain and simple. What made it worse was that UVa threw the ball in for a last shot and one of their girls got knocked down at halfcourt as she was trying to catch the inbounds pass. Guess what: no call.

-JD

Plays like these happen everyday. There are questionable calls in every game. Everyone has their own opinion. The game is over, no one can change it, its just an opinion. Everyone needs to quit jumping on Nate's case. He's only sharing his opinion too.