MOSS SAVES HER BEST FOR LAST
By Chris Kowalczyk
1-21-10

If you burned the first 39 minutes and 54 seconds of Thursday’s game tape, D’Andra Moss probably wouldn’t stop you. She might even fetch the gas can. But those last six seconds? Those are keepers.

Despite a miserable shooting night, Moss hit the one bucket that counted the most, bombing a 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left to give VCU a 60-59 victory over Delaware and phenom Elena Delle Donne. The win allowed the Rams to maintain their foothold on first place in the Colonial Athletic Association and will no doubt help Moss forget what had been nearly 40 minutes of frustration.

“I just didn’t want to let my team down,” Moss, who finished with 19 points, said. “The fact that my coach trusts me enough, regardless of how poor I’ve been shooting all game long, she still trusts me enough to win the game. All those tough games we had early in the season, we just know how to win when it’s close.”

Just seconds earlier, Delle Donne drew a double team and found a cutting Jocelyn Bailey under the hoop for a layup and a 59-57 Blue Hen lead. The Rams inbounded and raced up to midcourt to call timeout. Up until that point, Moss, VCU’s leading scorer (18.5 ppg), had hit just 6-of-24 from the floor. On 3-pointers, she was an abysmal 1-of-7.

It would have been perfectly understandable if VCU Head Coach Beth Cunningham had decided to ride the hot hand of senior Kita Waller, who tied the game twice in the final 2:24 with critical buckets. But Moss has been the Rams’ horse all year, and when Cunningham needed a gunner to sink VCU’s biggest shot of the season, she didn’t hesitate.

“I always have confidence in Dee,” Cunningham said. “I really think she started to get going in the second half. When you have a kid like Dee, who’s our purest shooter, or one of our purest shooters, I have all the confidence in the world that she’s going to step up and knock down shot down.”

On the final play, Waller inbounded to Jennifer Lane, who dribbled left atop the 3-point line. Moss waited patiently at the top of the key for Courtney Hurt to set a screen. As Hurt set her pick, Moss strode to the right of the arc, caught Lane’s pass, turned and buried the winner from 21 feet. As the ball ripped through the net, Moss threw her arms up and drifted towards midcourt, where she was mobbed by the same coaches and teammates that trusted her with the game on the line.

“This is definitely at the top of my list as far as moments,” Moss said. “It just felt good. All my teammates, it felt good that they had my back, because I just played so horrible, but that’s what teammates are for, I guess.”

It’s a signature moment for Moss, who up until this season had operated in the background behind stars Quanitra Hollingsworth and Krystal Vaughn. Previously, she had always been the Rams’ third or fourth option. If her excellent play all year (18.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg) hadn’t made it clear whose team this was, Thursday’s dagger eliminated any doubt.

Delle Donne is the heralded superstar in waiting. The nation’s number one recruit two years ago, her potential is nearly limitless. The future of the Delaware program rests with her. Meanwhile, Moss is the fourth-year senior playing on two rickety knees, hoping to squeeze out one more scrapbook moment. In this showdown of two of the CAA’s best, the nod went to the determined veteran. Delle Donne scored 17 of her game-high 27 points in the second half, but Moss had the last laugh.

The implications of Thursday’s win are far-reaching. Delaware was the Rams’ toughest in-conference challenge to date, and the victory kept momentum flowing in their direction. With a game at CAA preseason-favorite Drexel looming on Sunday, VCU (13-5, 6-0 CAA) has an opportunity to distinguish itself in the race for the league’s No. 1 seed.

If the Rams want to match, or even surpass, the program’s success of the last two seasons, they took a big step Thursday night.    

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