March 24, 2003
Get Your Boilermakers Gear Here
By DAN GELSTON
Associated Press Writer
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Erika Valek scored so often in the first half, her teammates thought she was perfect. That was until Valek was asked whether she missed anything in the period.
"Yeah, she blew my assist," Beth Jones said with a laugh.
It was one of the few misses for either player.
Valek scored 24 points, Mary Jo Noon had 17 and Jones added 16 as Purdue advanced to the round of 16 for the eighth time with an 80-62 win over Virginia Tech on Monday in the East Regional.
"We feel like we have a chance to get to another Final Four," coach Kristy Curry said. "We're two games away and anything can happen. Our will has got to be stronger than our skill and right now our team really understands that."
The second-seeded Boilermakers (28-5) will play the winner of Tuesday's game between Notre Dame and Kansas State. If the Irish win, it would be a rematch of the 2001 national championship game.
Chrystal Starling led the seventh-seeded Hokies (22-10) with 16 points and Kerri Gardin added 12. The Hokies were making their first tournament appearance in two years.
The backcourt combo of Valek and Jones helped Purdue break the game open early. Valek scored 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the first half and finished 10-for-16 from the floor. Jones made all five of her shots and they combined for five 3-pointers.
"My shot was going in and I felt really confident," Valek said. "The defense wasn't really pressuring me that much. I was just getting some open shots."
 | "We feel like we have a chance to get to another Final Four. We're two games away and anything can happen. Our will has got to be stronger than our skill and right now our team really understands that." Purdue Head Coach Kristy Curry |
Purdue used that loss as motivation all season.
For a half at least, the Boilermakers appeared ready to cruise out of the second round, going on a 14-2 run en route to a 41-30 halftime lead.
The Boilermakers quickly pushed the lead to 17 in the opening minutes of the second half and were shooting about 58 percent.
But the Hokies weren't finished.
They called timeout and then appeared to regroup. Carrie Mason hit a 3 to pull within 12, then a basket by Starling made it 51-43 nearly six minutes into the half.
After one Purdue free throw, Valek went flying out of bounds to save a loose ball but tossed it into the hands of Dawn Chriss. She scored the easy basket, cutting the gap to 52-45. Ieva Kublina's short jumper on the next possession made it a five-point game.
"We became more aggressive," Starling said of the run. "We stopped them in transition and started to make better passes."
The five-point deficit was as close as Virginia Tech would get.
Purdue's Lindsey Hicks made consecutive 3-pointers to push the lead back to double digits, 63-53 with 7:03 left and the Boilermakers sealed it down the stretch with free throws.
The Boilermakers went 18-for-23 from the line, while the Hokies made only two of six.
Noon, a 6-foot-5 senior center, hit her first career 3-pointer with 3.2 seconds left in the game and began stomping around as Purdue started an early celebration. The Boilermakers were whistled for a technical.
Noon said she didn't mean to rub the score in.
Noon played a much bigger role in slowing down Kublina, who was averaging 15.4 points. She finished with five points on 2-for-5 shooting.
Jones' production helped make up for an off night from Shereka Wright, who scored nine points.
The Boilermakers have played in two of the last four championship games - winning in 1999 - and have made the tournament 13 of the last 14 years.