The NCAA News - News and Features

June 29, 1998

3-2-1

A three-peat, a repeat and a peat makefor memorable year in women's hoops

BY KAY HAWES
STAFF WRITER

Attendance records, Tennessee's unprecedented three-peat, North Dakota's successful title defense and the giant killers of Washington (Missouri) made 1997-98 a year to remember in women's basketball.

In Division I, Kansas City's sold-out Kemper Arena was packed with fans wearing Tennessee orange, Arkansas cardinal, Louisiana Tech blue and North Carolina State red. The Women's Final Four in Kansas City wrapped up the best-attended Division I Women's Basketball Championship ever, as 285,428 spectators watched the entire tournament, 59,505 more than last year.

"We are thrilled with the attendance figures and feel they reflect the increasing excitement and enthusiasm for women's basketball across the country," said Tricia Bork, NCAA group executive director for championships.

The 17,976 fans, a good number of whom either loved or hated the song "Rocky Top" by the conclusion of the final game, watched as Tennessee smoked Arkansas' Razorbacks in the semifinal, 86-58, and went on to unplug the Techsters, 93-75, in the final.

In the championship game, Tennessee led by an amazing 25 points in the first half, as Louisiana Tech fell behind, 42-17.

Tennessee and Louisiana Tech are definitely not newcomers to this tournament. In fact, they are the only two teams that have competed in every Division I women's basketball tournament since its inception in 1982.

The two teams met for the first time in the 1987 championship game (Tennessee won, 67-44). That entire tournament, attended by 104,412 fans, broke records at the time, but it was still 181,016 short of this year's mark.

With the championship victory, Tennessee (39-0) joined Connecticut (1995) and Texas (1986) as the only Division I women's teams to finish the season undefeated. The Lady Vols also set the record for the most tournament victories by any school with 61.

The Lady Vols' Chamique Holdsclaw won the Honda Award for the best woman basketball player in Division I for the second straight year. She also was the recipient of the Honda-Broderick Cup as the nation's top collegiate woman athlete.

Tennessee reached yet another milestone this year as ticket sales from its games generated more than $1 million in revenue, enough to cover the program's costs for the first time.

Plenty of fans were interested in buying those tickets, as the Lady Vols ranked first in Division I attendance with an average of 14,969 spectators a game. Also, 386,713 fans saw a Lady Vols game in person -- at home, on the road or at a neutral site.

"It is an incredibly exciting time for us," said women's athletics director Joan C. Cronan. "I want to be sure that we take advantage of it tastefully and we also take advantage of it for the world to see that women's athletics have arrived."

Fighting Sioux take two

The champions in Division II also have experience hoisting the championship trophy. North Dakota won its second consecutive Division II title with a 92-76 win over Emporia State as 2,624 spectators looked on in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Ahead by only eight points at the half, the Fighting Sioux used a 14-2 run in the second half to roll to the win.

"For 40 minutes, considering both offense and defense, that was our best basketball game of the season," said North Dakota coach Gene Roebuck.

Emporia State's sister act of Jurgita and Aneta Kausaite combined for 40 points, but it wasn't enough to keep the Lady Hornets from losing their first game of the year.

Fan interest was at an all-time high at the Division II tournament with attendance of 38,312, up 1,242 from last year.

The Fighting Sioux were led in the championship game by Mandy Arndtson, a freshman guard/forward who had a career-high 23 points and 10 rebounds.

North Dakota's Jenny Crouse, a junior center and recipient of the Rawlings/Women's Basketball Coaches Association NCAA Division II Player of the Year award, had 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocked shots in the championship game. Crouse was also named the tournament's most outstanding player.

Roebuck was named North Central Conference (NCC) Coach of the Year for a third time after guiding the Fighting Sioux to the program's fourth NCC title with an 18-0 record and a 26-1 mark overall.

The 11-year coach led North Dakota to its first Division II crown last year and has compiled a 272-51 record, good for a .842 winning percentage.

While it was only the second women's basketball championship for North Dakota, great Division II women's basketball is nothing new to the state. Rival North Dakota State has won the championship five times (1991, 1993-1996) and taken second once (in 1992).

Attending women's basketball games is a popular sport in North Dakota, too, where North Dakota State has the highest attendance in Division II. Slightly more than 39,000 saw the Bison play ball in 1997-98, an average of 2,438.

Over in Grand Forks, the Fighting Sioux drew an average of 2,052 a game, fourth best in Division II.

And, proving that you don't have to come off a championship season to draw the crowds, 37,984 came to see Emporia State this season, an average of 2,234, giving the Lady Hornets the third best attendance in the division.

Giant killers turn champions

In Division III, it was not the giants but the giant killers who took home the title as Washington (Missouri) claimed its first national championship in women's basketball.

The Bears held off a late rally by Southern Maine on the Huskies' home court to win, 77-69, before a capacity crowd of 1,550 spectators.

This championship game had its cardiac moments. Washington led by 14 with only 4:37 left in the game, but Southern Maine cut the lead to three with 2:01 left.

The Huskies were out of steam, however, and could only watch as the Bears hit their free throws to secure the win and become only the second team in the 17-year history of the tournament to defeat the host school in the title game.

Unlike the championships in Divisions I and II, both contenders for the title were newcomers. Southern Maine had knocked off 1996 runner-up Mount Union, 79-66, in the semifinals, but the giant-killer moniker was Washington's.

The Bears twice defeated defending champion New York University to win the University Athletic Association (UAA) title, then knocked off the nation's only unbeaten Division III team, Millikin, to open the NCAA tournament. Washington, with Division III player of the year Alia Fischer, then polished off top-ranked Wisconsin-Oshkosh on its way to the semifinals, where Southern Maine was the favorite.

"I now know what it means when people talk about winning a national championship," said Bears coach Nancy Fahey, "and I cannot explain the feeling. You cannot put it into words."

Division III tournament fans were feeling giddy this year as well. While the attendance total of 38,639 was down almost 12,000 from last year, there were 14 fewer games this year, so actual per-game attendance was up slightly.

Division III home-game attendance was up significantly as more than 750,000 attended a Division III game in 1998, up 53,174 from 1997.

Unlike the championship game contenders in the other two divisions, Washington and Southern Maine didn't rank high this year when it came to home-game attendance. That may be a trend of the past though, now that the Bears and the Huskies can point to their 1998 season results to lure additional fans.

Washington, which reached the semifinals in 1991 and the title game in 1994, has won 20 or more games in eight of the last nine years (including a school-record 28 wins in 1997-98) and has captured eight UAA titles in 11 years.