NCAA Tournament 2000 - Purdue's Douglas already looking forward to 2001

Purdue's Douglas already looking forward to 2001
By Hank Lowenkron
Associated Press

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- It will likely take Purdue star Katie Douglas months to put one of her most frustrating games behind her.

Still, the junior has another season ahead and on Tuesday she was already looking forward to better days.

Douglas, already ninth on Purdue's all-time scoring list with 1,392 points, missed 10 of her 11 shots from the field and scored a season-low four points as the defending national champions ended their season with a 76-74 loss to Oklahoma at Mackey Arena.

Douglas had no excuse for her performance, which came two days after a 2-for-11 shooting effort when Purdue avoided the upset bid of Dartmouth 70-66 in the opening round of the NCAA East Regional.

"All we can do is use this for motivation for the returning players next year," Douglas said, "just remembering how this feels and how disappointed and upset we are."

Douglas will be one of four starters returning next season.

"I remember how bad we felt my freshman year when we lost our last game. The work we did after that helped make us champions last season," Douglas said. "Now we've got to do the same thing before next season. We've got a solid group coming back and we're not going to forget the pain of this loss."

The returnees include center Camille Cooper, who scored a career-high 34 against the Sooners and will start next season with 1,034 points; guard Shinika Parks, who had career-highs of 22 points and nine rebounds against the Sooners; and guard Kelly Komura, who after two seasons is eighth on Purdue's all-time list for 3-pointers with 67.

Douglas finished the season with a 20.4 average. Cooper was the team's second-leading scorer at 15.3 and led the team with a 7.2 mark. Komara was third in scoring at 10.9, followed by Parks at 8.3.

"I'm just disappointed in the outcome," Douglas said. "Shinika and Camille played great games. ... They (Oklahoma) just wanted it more than we did."

A second-team All-American and the Big Ten player of the year, Douglas looked uncomfortable all night as she threw air balls and committed three turnovers.

"They did a good job on me," Douglas said. "There were times in the game when there were three people on me. I just couldn't get anything going. Give Oklahoma credit. We just didn't make the plays."

"I don't think we played 40 minutes," said Parks. "You have to give the other team credit; they are not just going to sit down and take a loss. We have to learn to not let up."

Coach Kristy Curry refused to blame for the loss on Douglas.

"We can all talk about how Katie played, but it is about five people on the court, and 10 people on a team. It is not about one person," she said, adding, "We didn't value each possession the last five minutes. ... We didn't do a good job of executing."


Search for on