Purdue Finds Crutch in Figgs

From the very beginning, they had leaned on each other.

And Sunday night, with the women’s national basketball championship tilting unmistakably their way, Stephanie White-McCarty leaned on the strong shoulders of teammate Ukari Figgs in Purdue’s 62-45 victory.

With Purdue leading Duke, 47-39, with 4:10 to play, White-McCarty had crumpled to the floor with a sprained ankle. Figgs, in the midst of leading a 45-23 second-half Purdue run, was first to her side.

These two seniors had stuck together in 1996 when others transferred from Purdue--including Duke players Michele VanGorp and Nicole Erickson--after a coaching change.

As 17,773 in San Jose Arena watched, Figgs helped carry her teammate off, and talked into White-McCarty’s ear.

“I told Steph we’d been through a lot and that I was going to lay it on the line for her,” Figgs said.

The aggressive, attacking 5-foot-9 guard from Georgetown, Ky., earned the MVP award with a second-half turnaround that enabled Purdue to finish with its 32nd straight victory, a 34-1 record and the school’s first national basketball championship, men or women, since 1932.

Duke (29-7) went into a near-total collapse after the first half, when the Blue Devils had a 22-17 lead. Figgs had gone 0-for-7 fom the floor and had no points and four turnovers.

Then, a transformation.

Figgs, a mechanical engineering major with a 3.65 grade-point average, had 18 in the second half. She blitzed past Duke defenders for layups and provided a firebrand leadership that her coach, WNBA-bound Carolyn Peck, saluted afterward.

And in the Purdue head coach’s office, a picture frame will soon be filled.

“We have an empty frame that’s reserved for when we have a picture of a Purdue national championship team,” she said.

After the first half, some wondered if the winning team would have 40 points. At the break, championship game records had just been set for fewest points in a half (Purdue’s 17) and fewest by both teams in one half (39).

Then they went on to set a record for fewest points by both teams in a title game, 107.

“It was nerves partly, and that surprised me because I felt before the game our players were relaxed, ready to play well,” said Duke Coach Gail Goestenkors.

Three of her starters, Hilary Howard, Georgia Schweitzer and Peppi Browne, were major contributors to Duke’s 32.7% shooting night. Browne was two for 13 and Schweitzer, who had averaged 13 points a game for the tournament, was 0-for-3 with six turnovers and played just 18 minutes.

Howard had four turnovers--Duke had 20--and lost decisively her defensive assignment--guard Figgs.

Duke’s last lead was 30-28. Figgs scored on two straight drives down the paint and Camille Cooper scored inside.

Duke’s last real chance was when it trailed, 42-38, with 7:30 to go. Erickson missed a three-point shot with no one underneath to rebound and Katie Douglas got a three at the other end.

When Cooper scored inside again it was 47-39 and the Blue Devils would mount no more challenges.

After Howard got a three at 4:01, Duke went scoreless until she got another three-pointer with a minute left. Meanwhile, Purdue made 12 straight free throws down the stretch to pad its lead, their followers cheering wildly.

A teary Howard praised her adversary afterward.

“Figgs is a great defender [Howard had nine points], and we got stagnant and sometimes out of control,” she said.

“The game was not going well for us and we started losing confidence.”

A questioner gave Goestenkors a chance to take a shot at the officials, who awarded Purdue 28 free throws to Duke’s six. She passed.

“Purdue does a great job getting to the line” she said.

“Tennessee and Georgia pressed us hard and we handled it. Tonight, we didn’t. It was 15 seconds before we got into our offense. But I’m proud of my players. It wasn’t so long ago we were last in the ACC. I just told the team they really raised the bar for Duke women’s basketball.”

Peck, who effective today is the head coach/general manager of the WNBA’s Orlando Miracle, said White-McCarty had gone to the hospital for X-rays of her ankle.

She went out with 12 points, was taped up, tried to make it back but couldn’t even walk without help. When the celebrations started, she was on crutches.

It remained for Figgs to sum it up best: “At halftime, I felt like I’d let the team down by not being aggressive or attacking. I just decided we had 20 minutes to be a winner or a loser.”