By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — Thousands of words have written trying to describe West Virginia University women’s basketball star Liz Repella, but it took University of Pittsburgh Coach Agnus Beranato only four words to sum up her better than anyone ever had before or ever will again.
“She’s a frickin’ baller,” she said.
And somehow, it came across as she meant it, as a term of endearment.
Repella had just ruined the night for Beranato’s team, rebounding from the first half from hell in which she went 0 for 8 from the field and was held scoreless, to pour in 16 second-half points and lead WVU to a thrilling 63-59 victory over its arch rival.
We mentioned here that Repella, the junior from Steubenville, Ohio, had ruined the night for Beranato’s team, but not for her.
The coach was literally gushing, even in defeat.
“It was a helluva game,” she said. “Fabulous. Fabulous. This was a war.”
Indeed it was, complete with bodies falling, elbows flailing and every unladylike thing you could think of. If they wore skates you’d have sworn you watching a hockey game, especially the way they were checking Repella in that first half.
Known for her outside shooting, Pitt had someone in her face at every turn, so she tried to take the ball inside and considering that Pitt has some rather large ladies looming there, it proved not to be a good idea as shot after shot was being blocked.
She even had a 3-point shot taken when she thought she was alone banged out of bounds by a passing Pitt player.
“I was going in there against the ‘bigs’ and when you do that you’re going to get blocked,” she said.
The result was that at the half, Pitt held a 24-21 lead.
In the locker room, coach Mike Carey offered a warning to his star, but it was hardly the kind of warning you’d expect. He didn’t tell her to stop shooting. Instead he told her to keep shooting.
“If you don’t keep shooting I will take you out of there,” he threatened. “You are our shooter.”
And so play began in the second half and it was more of the same, Repella making a steal but missing her driving layup attempt.
Finally, with Pitt in front 27-26 and 16:37 left in the game, Repella scored on a layup.
“When she hit that shot we knew she would go off. She had that look in her eyes,” said Korinne Campbell, whose first-half shooting kept the Mountaineers in the game.
And that’s just what Repella did.
She scored 12 points in a span of 3 minutes and 40 seconds, giving the Mountaineers a lead they never would squander.
“Big players make big plays in big games,” said Beranato of Repella.
Beranato could sense what was happening on the sideline.
“You could see, she came out and said, ‘OK, I’m shooting terrible. They’re roughing me up. I’ve got to do something.’ She’s a money player, a ‘cha-ching’ player,” Beranato said, making the sound of a cash register.
By the time it ended, Repella was WVU’s high scorer, and when told that she had been deemed “a frickin’ baller’ by Beranato, she laughed out loud and said, “that’s a good compliment. Maybe she uses a different dictionary.”
Repella had to get some help down the stretch in this one as Pitt, led by Jania Sims’ 28 points that were partially offset by seven turnovers that allowed WVU to stay in the game, battled hard.
It took a couple of big baskets by Natalie Burton off the bench, a couple of clutch free throws from Madina Ali, who was having a tough night with one basket in seven tries and two of six free throws, and some marvelous guard play from Sarah Miles.
Fighting a knee problem, Miles played 38 minutes and had but one turnover, even though she handled the ball throughout the game. She had seven assists, none bigger than a nifty bounce pass off a drive for a layup by Burton.
She also used her speed and guile to go coast-to-coat for a left-handed layup that gave WVU a six-point advantage as the clock went under one minute to play, if not cinching the game at least turning it into a really tough situation for the Panthers.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
