Old Dominion 58, James Madison 54

3/11/2006 3:57 PM

By JOSEPH WHITE
AP Sports Writer

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - One of these days, perhaps, Old Dominion isn't going to win the Colonial Athletic Association championship.

In fact, this seemed like it might be the year. The Lady Monarchs lost two starters to injuries before the season started. They didn't have a player on the all-CAA team and were shut out of the conference's postseason awards.

Never mind. Wendy Larry's team made it 15 titles in a row Saturday and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a 58-54 victory over James Madison in the championship game.

``We weren't in the mix for some of those postseason awards, but we really did have a good team,'' Larry said. ``This team bought into the fact that if we played together and we hung together, the greatest reward would be the championship, and here we sit.''

Old Dominion (22-8) is 44-0 in the CAA tournament since joining the league in 1991. There have been some near misses in recent years - overtime was needed to beat Delaware in the title game last year - and Saturday's game was tied with 2 minutes to go.

But Paula Muxiri hit a 3-pointer with 1:31 to play to restore the lead for good, and a potential game-winning layup by James Madison's Jasmin Lawrence in traffic fell off the rim with about 10 seconds remaining.

Tournament MVP T.J. Jordan, despite missing 6 of 7 3-pointers, scored 13 points to lead a balanced attack, and the fans clad in sky blue chanted ``15 straight'' as the players celebrated on the court.

``We lost some key players early in the season, and everybody basically ruled us out except ourselves,'' said senior guard Lawona Davis, referring to Tamara Ransburg and Tiffany Green. ``We just kept working together, fighting for each other. I think this is very special.''

James Madison (24-6), which handed Old Dominion its only regular season conference loss, will have to wait for a possible at-large NCAA tournament bid - and they'll have to wait another year for another shot at breaking the Lady Monarchs' CAA tournament invincibility.

``We feel we're just as good or better,'' coach Kenny Brooks said. ``If you don't feel that way, if you don't think that way, then you're never going to win. We just really feel like we came up short. We don't feel like we had a miraculous performance to hang with them, we feel like we're just as good or better.''

Tamera Young and Meredith Alexis scored 14 points apiece for the Dukes. Point guard Andrea Benvenuto, who played all but 26 seconds of three tournament games in less than 72 hours, went 3-for-16 from the field and finished with 10 points.

Brooks used only six players, down from his usual season-long rotation of seven because of an injury to Lesley Dickinson. The Dukes also lost two key players for the season last fall.

``We played short-handed all year long ourselves,'' Brooks said. ``The advantage that Old Dominion had over us was that when they played short-handed, they still had nine people ready to play. We went to a short bench where we played seven all year long.''

Down 52-45, the Dukes rallied to tie the score with a 7-0 run capped by Kisha Stokes' three-point play, but Muxiri answered with a 3-pointer that put the Lady Monarchs ahead 55-52.

Old Dominion then fouled Benvenuto as she attempted a 3-pointer before the shot clock buzzer. She made 2-of-3 free throws to cut the lead to one.

Old Dominion's 18th turnover gave the Dukes the ball back with 30 seconds remaining. Lawrence missed the layup, and the ball went out of bounds to the Lady Monarchs with 7.5 seconds left. Davis made a free throw, and Sherida Triggs added two more in the final seconds.