Keyboard Quarterbacks

By Karen Bailis

One of the best point guard square-offs in the early years of the WNBA was between Liberty star Teresa Weatherspoon and journeywoman Debbie Black. It was sure to be explosive not for their scoring output – that wasn’t their game – but because each was the match to the other’s dynamite. They sure knew how to set each other off.

And Black knew best how to get to Spoon. The 5-foot-2 Black, a defensive player of the year like her rival, used her size to her advantage. She’d Velcro herself inside Spoon’s uniform and wouldn’t let go. She’d disrupt, annoy and dog the volatile Weatherspoon, who would swat, seethe and elbow the tiny Tasmanian devil and then, finally, she’d blow. They once nearly came to blows after a frustrated Spoon knocked over Black as they walked off the court.

The memory of Weatherspoon vs. Black lived on in the women’s NCAA Sweet 16 Saturday in New Orleans with White vs. Riley, which was every bit as intense and featured a punch not caught by the refs.">

Erica White, the senior point guard for LSU, is driving her team toward its fifth straight Final Four. Andrea Riley, the sophomore point guard for Oklahoma State, had led her team to its first Sweet 16 berth in nearly 20 years.

It was a frustrating outing for Riley and her Cowgirls. In the first 26 minutes of the game, she was the only member of her team to score a field goal. She did, however, nearly score a knockout. But it was her team that fell, 67-52, to White’s Tigers.

The two point guards, the smallest players on the court but the biggest in bravado, trash-talking and toughness, led their teams in scoring – the 5-foot-5 Riley with 26, the 5-foot-3 White with 18. Like Debbie Black did in her day, White led her team’s defensive efforts, and perhaps that’s what put Riley over the edge. Or, it might have been the fact that Riley has having to carry the offensive load for OSU, while White got help from three other teammates in double figures.

That’s no excuse for throwing a punch.

Riley had just come up with an emphatic block of White’s jumper in the second half. The two ran back up court having what appeared to be a colorful conversation, with White doing most of the talking. Riley launched a shot, then took a shot at White’s head. White, to her credit, did nothing but put up her hands, as if to show the refs that she wasn’t making any illegal contact. No matter. The refs didn’t see it. LSU Coach van Chancellor did and pulled his point guard to calm her down. Riley played on.

But it’s White and LSU who will play on, in the Elite Eight on Monday, against North Carolina. Many fans will look forward to the matchup between LSU’s 6-6 center Sylvia Fowles and UNC’s one-two post punch of Erlana Larkins and LaToya Pringle. But just as intriguing will be the tilt between White and UNC freshman point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid. More fireworks? Tune in to ESPN at 7:30 pm.