Ukari Figgs is Purdue’s woman for all season . . . especially for March.
Figgs, the Boilermakers’ 5-foot-9-inch senior guard says, “For some reason, I seem to play my best in March.”
Saturday night she put those words into action.
Figgs’ scoring, passing, defense, enthusiasm and leadership sparked the nation’s top-ranked women’s college team to its 29th straight victory, an 82-59 romp over North Carolina (28-8) in the NCAA Midwest Regional. The victory moved Purdue (31-1) into the Elite Eight.
Purdue will play Rutgers (29-5) here on Monday for a berth in the Final Four. The No. 3-seeded Scarlet Knights beat No. 2 seed Texas Tech (30-4) 53-42 by using a stifling zone defense that limited Tech to 11 points on four baskets in 19 shots in the first half.
Tomora Young scored 15 points for Rutgers.
On the eve of the Purdue-Carolina game, Chanel Wright, who would lead Tar Heels scorers with 14 points, said: “The run-run game is part of our team. We average 83 points per game. We don’t want to play Purdue’s style. We want to play Carolina ball.”
But to the surprise of many in the Redbird Arena crowd of 9,041 fans, the Tar Heels never got their running game going. And it was the Boilermakers, who often feature a half-court offense, sprinting from baseline to baseline.
Figgs was the reason for the reversal of styles. She nailed two three-point baskets and two free throws as Purdue zipped off to a 15-3 lead and was never seriously threatened. Eleven of those first 15 points came on fast breaks.
“We can fast break,” Figgs said. “We take whatever the defense gives us. Our outside shots were falling early, so we kept shooting them, and it worked.”
Figgs scored 15 of her game-high 24 points in the first half when Purdue took a 38-22 lead, holding Carolina to half of its normal intermission scoring total.
“Our defense, especially No. 5 (Figgs) was the reason for that,” Purdue coach Carolyn Peck said. “Ukari picks up the ball for us on defense, and she wouldn’t let North Carolina get its break going. Our wings, Stephanie White-McCarty and Katie Douglas, also got back fast on defense, and that helped. But Ukari’s defense was the main factor.”
“Our defense set up transition baskets for us,” said White-McCarty, who made three of Purdue’s 10 steals. “We created offense off our defense.”
Lamented Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell: “We ran into a buzzsaw. Purdue’s three guards don’t get enough credit for their defense. If Purdue continues to play as it did tonight, it could be national champion.”
White-McCarty, Figgs and Douglas shared 63 of their team’s points and 21 of its 23 assists. Figgs had five assists to go with her 24 points. Douglas hit 9 of 10 shots and had 21 points and eight assists. White-McCarty scored 18 and had seven assissts.
Players on some teams pass the ball only grudgingly. The Boilermakers, especially their three star guards, reveled in making the passes that set up a flock of layups and enabled the team to hit 31 of 50 shots, 62 percent.
