Georgia Women Hold Miller to Just 12 Points and Rout USC, 77-56

A half hour before the University of Georgia women’s basketball team was to play USC Sunday, the Bulldog cheerleaders passed out thousands of small, circular fans.

On one side was a picture of Trojan star Cheryl Miller with a red, ghostbuster-like line drawn through her face. The print on the Budweiser-sponsored promotion read: “It’s NEVER Miller time at Georgia.”

There is some truth to advertising.

The Bulldogs completely shut down Miller, limiting her to a career-low 12 points, and rolled to a surprisingly easy 77-56 victory in front of 7,544 in the Georgia Coliseum.

It was the first loss of the season for the second-ranked Trojans (10-1), while the sixth-ranked Bulldogs improved to 13-2.

Georgia Coach Andy Landers didn’t throw any special defenses at Miller and the Trojans. The Bulldogs used a swarming defense with forward Lisa O’Connor assigned to Miller.

Whenever Miller got the ball, which wasn’t too often, she was double-teamed. But O’Connor didn’t need much help. She did a superb job denying Miller the ball and forcing her to take some bad shots.

Miller made just 5-of-13 attempts, and she fouled out with 1:46 to play. She scored four points in the first half and was never a factor in the second after leaving the game with her fourth foul at the 13:27 mark.

Georgia exposed just about every USC weakness--lack of height, lack of muscle and lack of experience. The Bulldogs blew the game open in the second half by controlling the offensive boards and scoring heavily from the inside. Many of their layups went uncontested.

All-America forward Janet Harris led Georgia with 24 points, including 19 in the second half, while Teresa Edwards added 16 and Katrina McClain had 14.

“Our defense was soft today,” USC Coach Linda Sharp said. “We weren’t aggressive enough, and we allowed Georgia to get the shots it wanted. We were standing behind their post players, we let a lot of lob passes inside and allowed too many layups.”

While USC guard Yolanda Fletcher, who finished with 20 points, kept the Trojans close at times with her outside shooting, and freshman forward Holly Ford added 14 points, USC seemed like just another team without Miller in the lineup.

They didn’t look so hot with her, either. Miller missed a few layups and appeared frustrated all game. With about two minutes remaining, she dribbled the ball off her foot and lost possession to Edwards, who turned the ensuing break into Miller’s fifth foul.

An estimated 80 high school girls basketball teams from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee were on hand to watch Miller, the undisputed queen of women’s basketball.

But many had to have gone home disappointed.

“I’ve had better games,” Miller said. “Shots that normally fall weren’t falling for me today, but that’s part of the game. I wish I could have played better, not for the crowd, but for my teammates. I don’t feel any remorse. If I did, it would be for my teammates.”

Miller actually took the loss pretty well and was able to find some humor in it. When asked if she was talking throughout the game to Edwards, who was her teammate on the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic basketball team last summer, she replied:

“I would tell her good play T . . . nice basket . . . nice basket . . . nice basket.”

Said Edwards: “I’ve seen Cheryl do a lot better, but she’s still, by far, the best woman basketball player ever. She didn’t have a chance to play her game today.”

You got the feeling it might be a rough afternoon for USC when Fletcher controlled the opening tip, dribbled toward the wrong basket and was called for a back-court violation.

But the worst was yet to come. The Bulldogs shot 52% and were as good outside as they were inside.

It was Edwards who continued to hit jump shot after jump shot, while McClain and Harris did most of their damage from inside. Edwards also had 10 assists.

USC trailed, 35-26, at halftime and cut Georgia’s lead to five (41-36) after scoring nine-straight points, five by Miller. But Miller picked up her third and fourth fouls in a six-second span and suddenly found herself on the bench.

With Miller went any hope for a comeback. Georgia scored the next four points and began to pull away. The Bulldogs closed the game with nine consecutive points.

“My players did everything I asked them to do,” Landers said. “They shut down USC’s fast break and outrebounded Miller. We wanted to make them play defense, which is something they don’t like to do for an extended period of time, and we did that.”

Miller has obviously had better games, but she hasn’t lost her popularity in the Land of Dixie. She remained after the game and signed those promotional fans for hundreds of fans.