Irish are lucky to escape with victory
Kerry Smith
assistant sports editor
Call it the luck of the Irish.
When the Irish stepped on the court Wednesday night against conference rival Pittsburgh, they didn't look like the No. 5 team in the nation.
Suffering through their worst display of basketball all season, the Irish just edged out the 13-8 Panthers with a 81-74 finish.
The Irish were lucky they weren't playing Connecticut, Rutgers or Boston College.
They were lucky no NCAA scouts were at the Joyce Center trying to decide what teams should host the opening rounds come tournament time.
And they were lucky that the eighth-ranked team in the conference wasn't on top of its game enough to pull a major upset.
"I'd like to apologize to our fans and anyone who had to sit through that game because we didn't play to our abilities," said Irish head coach Muffet McGraw. "For that I apologize and our team apologizes. It was the most embarrassing performance of the season."
When a team breaks a school record for most consecutive wins with its 16th straight victory and one of its senior starters etches her name into the record books with her 1,000th point, it should be a time for celebration.
But for senior guard Danielle Green and the Irish, broken records were met with broken spirits as the Irish realized the road to the NCAA tournament is going to be an uphill battle.
"We had a lot of problems," said McGraw. "Definitely the mental part, the lack of focus, the lack of intensity, the lack of pride and the lack of any basketball knowledge whatsoever were all key factors."
The Irish showed Wednesday that they are not as infallible as they have appeared since their winning streak began in December. They hit a low point by letting a team that lost to Connecticut by 52 points come within seven points of an upset.
The Irish were plagued by turnovers and a non-existent inside game in the first half. Handing the ball over to the Panthers 12 times, the Irish were unable to stick to their usual game plan and high standards.
Despite their height advantage under the net, the Irish couldn't convert in the lane. After five missed shots in the first two minutes, McGraw had to go to the to replace center Ruth Riley and forward Julie Henderson.
"I felt our post didn't come to play mentally," said McGraw. "When you're looking inside and you can't convert, then you have to make a change."
Riley finished out the half with one field goal and five points. Henderson added only two.
"Missing shots like that makes you frustrated," said Riley. "We should have been making those shots. I think a lot of people stopped looking for their shots after they missed a few — that hurt us."
Luckily for the Irish, Big East co-rookie of the week Alicia Ratay was on fire from behind the arc. Ratay hit four 3-pointers in a row to make up for the poor play under the basket, scoring 14 points in the first half, propelling her squad to a six-point 33-27 halftime lead.
"That was the only reason we were winning at halftime," said McGraw of Ratay's sharp shooting.
That lead was cut to just three in the opening second of the second half before the Irish picked up the tempo a notch.
Realizing that their undefeated conference record was being seriously tested for the first time all season, Riley and forward Kelley Siemon turned up the intensity. They combined for 25 second-half points, leading the Irish to a 73-51 lead with 4:18 remaining.on the clock.
But the win was anything but safe, as McGraw gave her starters a rest and the Irish bench squandered a 22-point lead in less than four minutes. When the Panthers began to use the press to gain possession of the ball, they whittled the Irish lead to just six with 20 seconds left in regulation.
"I'm not pleased at all with the bench. And that's an understatement," said McGraw. "We're just not going to sub at that point which is unfortunate."
The Irish have enough talent to propel them to the Final Four in March, but only if they play with that talent for the full 40 minutes.
With the toughest stretch of their schedule on the horizon with road trips to Rutgers and Connecticut in the coming weeks, the Irish can't afford to falter again.
And McGraw knows just how to ensure that.
I'm not sure if [the Irish performance] opened their eyes our not but I have a feeling that tomorrow's practice will be more eye opening than today's game," said the head coach. "I think we'll bring our track shoes tomorrow and get the kinks out that way."
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, February 10, 2000
