GREENSBORO, N.C.
Once the ultimate prize was gone, and that vanished early in Sunday's second half against Connecticut, Old Dominion's women were left to win the battle of the lost cause.
They did so, and took credit for it afterward, and that was fine. The Lady Monarchs were on the road to being thrashed by top-seeded UConn. They wound up merely being drubbed 78-63.
That's more than a difference in sportswriter semantics. It's the difference between ending your season in an NCAA regional semifinal with a game tape you want to immediately erase or walking off the court sensing a beginning as much as an ending.
"We're in great shape," junior point guard Jazzmin Walters said. "Of course, everybody doesn't like losing. But I'm more than satisfied with how we ended this season."
So maybe it's a trivial consolation, battling to keep it dignified. But that's what sports leaves you when winning is out of the question - emerge with no broken bones, no lost limbs and maybe some of those teachable moments coaches are always talking about.
That was ODU's fate when it could not match the Huskies' intensity, to say nothing of the radical imbalance in pure talent, after intermission and squandered all upset hope.
Lack of aggression isn't often a glitch for Wendy Larry-coached teams and, when it is, it's early in the season rather than late. That explains in part how a women's pioneer like ODU is still able to win 31 games, return to the national rankings and reach an NCAA round of 16 stocked generally with sleeper recruits who labor in a middling conference.
Yet, when UConn expanded its 10-point halftime lead to 73-45 with 8-1/2 minutes left - answering T.J. Jordan's opening 3-pointer for ODU with a 30-9 onslaught - the Lady Monarchs were powerless against a team Larry called "the perfect storm."
That was pretty much when the Huskies either lost interest or started thinking about dinner reservations. Amazingly, they made their final field goal with 9:54 to play and scored just six more points as the Lady Monarchs - with returning players all over the court, as Larry happily noted - decided humiliation wouldn't be part of their day.
"I don't think we lost interest," said UConn's Maya Moore, who scored 25 points. "It was almost like we didn't respond when they stepped their game back up after we had our run. We should've dug in a little more.
"We're not happy with the way we finished that game, but we played well enough so that they couldn't catch up."
It lifted Larry's postgame mood that those who banked many of the day's hard knocks were underclassmen like Walters, Tiffany Green, Shadasia Green, Jessica Canady and Jasmine Parker.
The spotlight fell on that younger core. Seniors Shahida Williams and Jordan were able to make just 6 of 19 shots for 13 points, 10 of them Williams'.
"Fortunately, we had a number of young kids who really did play hard and kind of turned it around for us," Larry said, noting one caveat: The pressure to win was long removed.
Nonetheless, the up-close eyeful of UConn, which stomped ODU by 43 in November, amid the white-hot NCAA glare should burn indelibly in those Lady Monarchs who wish to challenge themselves to greater things.
If that's a moral victory, so be it. There are worse results.
"I'm just always gonna have the mentality of this game in the back of my head every time I work out," Parker said.
"I'm gonna keep that tenacious mentality and attitude... because that's what it takes to be a winner."
Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com