November 25, 1998
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Purdue found a new sense of urgency.
In the first game since the Boilermakers dropped from the nation's No. 1 ranking, Ukari Figgs scored 20 points and Stephanie White-McCarty added 17 in a 92-51 rout of Valparaiso Wednesday night.
"Anytime you come off a loss, especially one like that, you are going to come out more focused," White-McCarty said. "We were coming off a tough loss and obviously we wanted to win for coach Peck, too."
Coach Carolyn Peck missed the game because of the death of her grandmother in Tennessee. In her absence, third-year assistant Kerry Cremeans handled the team.
Purdue (3-1) was ranked No. 1 for the first time last week but lost 73-72 on Sunday at Stanford. The game against Valparaiso (1-2) was never close after the opening minutes, and three other Boilermakers also scored in double figures. Mackenzie Curless tallied 12 points and Katie Douglas and Kelly Komara each had 11.
Valparaiso was led by Sarrah Stricklett with 12 points and Marte Linthout with 10.
"Kerry is a great coach and everybody on our coaching staff knows the game," White-McCarty said. "They communicate all the time. When we are out there offensively and defensively, it's just like coach Peck is over there. Kerry was our head coach and we had to look to her just like we do when coach Peck is here."
Figgs also had a career-high 11 assists, and center Camille Cooper tied a Purdue record with seven blocked shots.
"Bottom line, this team made coaching very easy," Cremeans said. "Yesterday and today I was most nervous, but once the game started it was like all the butterflies just left. We knew exactly what Valparaiso was going to do and our players did that very well. We wanted to play hard for 40 minutes and set the tempo from the start."
Figgs was only 4-for-12 from the field but made all 10 of her free throw attempts. The Boilermakers also took full advantage of 25 Crusaders turnovers and outscored their opponents 25-9 from the foul line.
Purdue jumped out to a 6-0 advantage, then after Valparaiso tied the game 6-6 on Jill Campbell's two free throws with 14:46 left in the first half, the Boilermakers took control with an 11-2 run. Douglas had seven points during that streak, including a 3-pointer that pushed Purdue's lead to 17-8.
The Boilermakers' largest lead in the first half was 42-18 on a pair of free throws by Figgs. Purdue led 43-22 at halftime, then blew out the Crusaders with an 18-2 run in the first six minutes of the second half.
"Obviously, Purdue is a great team," Valparaiso coach Keith Freeman said. "I thought they did a good job working against our zone. They did an excellent job of attacking our zone 10 minutes into the game."