Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

NEW YORK _ Millions have been spent by entertainers over the years to host parties in Madison Saquare Garden consisting of thousands of friends in attendance.

On Wednesday afternoon, it had taken only a few phone calls by a women's basketball dad to enable his daughter and her teammates to move one of their "home" games 100 miles north for a much smaller affair in the storied venue.

"From the world's most famous arena, let's play ball," the public address announcer intoned over the Garden's massive speaker system.

And over the next 40 minutes, the women's game gained another niche to its history here when host Cabrini from near Philadelphia's Main Line played the College of Notre Dame from Baltimore in what is believed the sport's first-ever Division III contest in the Garden.

The Cabrini players admitted to jitters caused by the surroundings, although the media contingent consisted of one individual. The arena was also devoid of cheerleaders, bands, and the larger number of spectators who arrived later for Wednesday night's St. John's-Pittsburgh Big East men's tilt.

Even Cabrini coach Bobbi Morgan was slighted disoriented at the outset, asking the scorer's table "where's my coaching box," as she moved to position herself to yell out strategy.

But one Cabrini player was overheard at one moment to misread the magnitude of the event when she said to a teammate, "Our president is here?"

The jumbotron scoreboard did not have running video of the event.

Otherwise, both teams were given the full Garden treatment to the delight of the very few fans, friends, family and school officials who were allowed to step on the court at halftime and shoot baskets.

"My assistant coaches wanted to come out and take a few shots," Morgan smiled.

Despite the different operational setting, the school's two athletic department spokespersons -- Cabrini's Lynn Busby and Notre Dame's Ryan Griswold, who had been at Haverford -- worked the event just the same as they would have back in either Radnor or Baltimore.

Afterwards, both schools posed for team pictures on the court.

"I grew up watching everyone on this court," said Cabrini freshman Juilie Bonomo of nearby Manhassrtt, N.Y. "I used to love watching (former Knicks star) Patrick Ewing,"

A little over three decades ago, Immaculata and Queens College injected the first women's basketball game into the Garden's slate of top sports attractions.

Since then, some of the greats of the women's game have played here and the Garden is also the summer home of the WNBA's New York Liberty.

Although Cabrini was a strong favorite, the Cavaliers trailed the Gators, 32-30, with 18 minutes, 14 seconds left in the game.

Then, suddenly, Morgan's group transformed into an impersonation of Connecticut, Tennessee, the U.S.Olympic women's team and the WNBA All-Stars rolled into one.

Cabrini went on a 38-0 run over the next 16 minutes and claimed a 71-37 victory that enabled the Cavaliers (10-4, 5-0 PAC). to stay unbeaten in the conference.

The Gators (4-11, 2-5) finally hit a three-pointer to end the drought with 2:11 left in the game.

During Notre Dame's cold spell, the Gators missed 25 shots and committed 12 turnovers.

Cabrini finished with a lopsided 65-42 advantage on the boards.

Junior Kayleen Smith had a season-best 21 points for Cabrini and also grabbed five rebounds, making her the first Cavalier this season to score at least 20 points.

Sophomore Deana DiAmico, a graudate of Wilmington's Ursuline Academy and former teammate of UConn-bound Elena Delle Donne, dealt six assists.

Brittany McLeod grabbed 10 rebounds.

Angela Turner had nine points for Notre Dame.

Cabrini travelled to New York Tuesday night and did some sigthseeing while also going to Planet Hollywood.

"Sorry, it wasn't quite UConn-Tennessee," Morgan qupped afterwards of Cabrini's second-half wipeout. "We just couldn't make a shot in the first half. We were nervous, scared.

"Once we calmed down, we were fine," Morgan said. "We walked around Times Square last night and made pretend we were famous for a minute.

"It was great. I said to the team, `You're going to remember this game the rest of your life, win, lose. ... Everytime you see the Garden on TV, you'll say, yeah, I played there.

"Now that we won, it makes it even better and we're staying for the second game."

Smith said she wasn't impressed, initially, when the team was told the game had been scheduled here.

"I don't follow basketball that much. But just being here, this atmosphere, you feel it when you walk in. You feel it's an honor to be given the chance to play in one of these facilities," Smith said. "It's not something everyone gets to do."

Neither team was given one of the larger locker rooms because of the men's game.

"It was a small little closet," Smith said. "But we're used to the small. However, the hotel was nice.

"This takes our season to another level and we now have the confidence to play in a place like this. We didn't have a lot of fans,but it's a pleasure to have your family come watch you play on a court where the Knicks play. I'm never going to forget it."

DiAmico had the honor of topping former teammate Delle Donne in one way -- she beat the nation's top high school athlete into playing in the Garden. UConn is reported to be one of the teams who will play here next season in the Maggie Dixon Classic.

"I didn't believe it," DiAmico said when she was told of the event. "I thought, `There's no way we're going to play up here. But it happened and it was a great feeling.

"The second half we got the jitters out and played our normal game. The Garden treated us very well here. Very high class. Very nice."

Morgan added that effort is no different at Division III than at the big-time Division I level.

"Division III kids work just as hard as D-I kids do, they really do." Morgan said and then broke into another big smile.

"You only get one chance like this. I don't think we'll be back for the NIT or the Big East Tournament," Morgan noted.

"Cabrini is not going Division I anytime soon."

-- Mel