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Monday, April 2
Nothing stops Riley on way to title
By Joe Wojciechowski
ESPN.com
ST. LOUIS – Bad pass? Didn't matter. Three bodies all but surgically attached to her? No problem. The time out called to scare her? Please.
Nothing short of kryptonite could have stopped Ruth Riley in the closing seconds of Sunday night's national championship game. So when Riley soared and snagged a high pass from Kelly Siemon, drew the foul and calmly sank both free throws with 5.8 seconds left to give the Irish a 68-66 victory over Purdue and their first women's basketball national title, it seemed normal.
|  | | Ruth Riley, the national Player of the Year, capped off her dream season by leading the Irish to their first national title. |
"Everyone said it was a bad pass, but I honestly don't remember," Riley said. "I knew Kelly would be looking for me and I was just thinking whatever it takes, I have to get that ball."
Of course, it wasn't that easy. After Riley snagged her 13th rebound of the night 25 seconds earlier, the Irish called a timeout to set up the play.
It was a play any of the 20,551 people in attendance could have called. Get the ball to Riley. Executing it would be a little trickier.
"Everyone knew we were going to Ruth, the question was could we get anyone out of her way," said Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw. "We just wanted to give Ruth an opportunity to go get it."
It was a designed play that the Irish had struggled with earlier in the game. The plan is for Siemon to get the ball near the free-throw line and lob the ball into Riley. However, Siemon's lobs sailed over Riley's head a few times before.
"I knew we had tried it a couple other times and the ball ended up out of bounds," said Riley, who finished with 28 points and was named the Outstanding Player of the Final Four. "I didn't want that to happen again."
But it almost did. Siemon's pass looked marked for row 3, but Riley went up and snagged it somehow.
"That was a horrible pass," Siemon said. "I lobbed it in there a bit too high, but she grabbed it. She's a great player and she came through in the clutch for us."
After hauling in the lob, she went back up strong. Three Boilermakers went up with her, including Shereka Wright, who hit her arm as she was shooting. Suddenly, the national championship was on the line -- literally.
Purdue called a timeout before Riley stepped to the free-throw line.
"With 5.8 seconds left, you want to make her think about it as long as you can," said Purdue coach Kristy Curry. "You have to go for it at that point."
But Riley didn't flinch. Her first free throw hit the front of the rim, bounced up and fell through the net.
Another Purdue timeout didn't work. She hit nothing but net the second time. So much for that plan.
"I wasn't really nervous, surprisingly," Riley said. "I'm pretty confident in my free-throw shooting. I mean, I've shot free throws all my life so I felt confident."
So was McGraw.
"It was exactly who we wanted on the line," McGraw said. "She's a great free-throw shooter, but more importantly, she's so poised and confident."
And now, thanks to that and nerves of steel, Riley and Notre Dame are national champs.
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 Ericka Haney feeds Ruth Riley, who hits a jumper over 2 defenders.
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 Ruth Riley got all she wanted in St. Louis.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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