INSIDE We didn't start the fire Yesterday's victory produced only a token bon­ fire. The history of Duke's ornamental benches THE CHRONICLE has been somewhat fierier. SEE pp. 3,4 liif-V!"'!1.' Four-ward March: Duke topples Temple > After a five-year drought from Men's Final Four Brackets the Final Four, the men's basketball .Ohio SI. gr-8) 1 Duke [36-1) team announced its return with an 85-64 clobbering of Temple. By ZACHARY DAVIS The Chronicle EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ.—Finally, the Blue Devils are back. A five-year drought ended with a downpour as Duke (36-1) took the court at the Meadowlands yesterday after­ noon and, fueled by 23 points from se­ nior guard Trajan Langdon, went out INSIDE: and dismantled Temple (24-11), 85-64. Alaskan Assassination: Trajan Langdon With his team down 9-5 with 15:11 returned from a foot injury to earn East Region left in the opening half, Langdon simply MVP honors. caught fire. A running jumper from the Game commentary: The Blue Devils helped exor­ baseline, a three-pointer, then another, cise last year's demons thanks to determination in and another, from deep behind the line. the face of an attempted Temple comeback. Eleven straight points kick-started a 17- SEE PAGE 3, SPORTSWRAP 2 Blue Devil run that put Duke up 22-11 about midway through the half. fifth-year senior, it's tough with that age From there, the lead hovered around gap. He's been a great leader for us." 10, getting as low as five points at 30-25 Shane Battier said the team knew before Duke pulled it back up to double who to count on to lead the Blue Dev­ figures. Aii acrobatic rebound-slam by ils to St. Petersburg. "After the first freshman Corey Maggette sent Duke one he made, we knew he was going to into the locker room with a comfortable be in the groove," Battier said. "He 43-31 advantage. But there was no had that look." doubt from the Blue Devils as to where The Duke attack was a model of effi­ KELLI SHERAN/THE CHRONICIE the initial spark had come from. ciency. The team shot an astounding 60 FIFTH-YEAR SENIOR Trajan Langdon cuts down the nets after earning his first trip to the Final Four.. "Trajan's shooting spree in the first percent from the field for the game, in­ half really helped us get going," said cluding 59 percent from beyond the arc. in Langdon's hands, and the team captain with 10:23 left in the game. But an 11-2 Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who re­ The Blue Devils had 14 turnovers but failed to deliver only once. Langdon shot Duke run quickly eliminated any mained perfect at 24-0 in East Regional countered with 19 assists. Six Duke 6-of-7 from the field, including 5-of-6 on thoughts of last year's Elite Eight col­ games. "I think Trajan knew he had to players had at least two assists, spread­ three-pointers, and added 6-of-8 from the lapse against Kentucky. do that to settle everyone down. I'm re­ ing the ball around to beat Temple's charity stripe to account for his points. Ultimately, Duke's road to the Final ally proud of him. We have a lot of vaunted matchup-zone defense. In the second half, Temple hung Four was paved with bricks—the ones sophomores on this team, and to be a Ultimately, the ball usually wound up around, even closing within 10 at 64-54 See FINAL FOUR on page 9, SPORTSWRAP Duke dethrones Lady Monarchs A gritty effort lifted the women's basketball team into the Elite Eight for the second straight season By NICK TYLWALK created an easy bucket for Mery Andrade that The Chronicle trimmed the margin to 64-59 with 4:30 left to play. GREENSBORO, N.C. — Duke knew what was coming. That was still the score with 2:45 remaining when An­ To advance to the round of eight for the second drade, the Monarchs' emotional leader, was whistled straight NCAA tournament, the women's basketball for her fifth foul just before the shot clock was about to team knew it would have to contend with an Old Do­ expire for Duke. minion team that made up for what it lacked in offen­ Natalie Diaz sank a running eight-footer to make it sive firepower with frantic defense and ferocious offen­ 71-63 with less than two minutes remaining. But on sive rebounding. The keys to the game were no mystery. Duke's next possession, Lauren Rice sucked the last "There were two things that we needed to do to bit of wind out ofthe Monarchs' sails by banking in a win," Duke coach Gail Goestenkors said. Take care of three-pointer from the top ofthe key. the basketball, and limit their offensive rebounds. "I knew the shot clock was going down," said Rice, Those were two things we could control." who scored 11 points off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting. It took the better part of 20 minutes, but the Blue "I just tried to spot up and throw it up there, and it Devils finally realized those objectives and emerged went in. I think that really just put the knife in them with a 76-63 win Saturday at the Greensboro Coliseum. and kind of killed them." Nicole Erickson scored 16 of her game-high 24 points in Duke (27-6) struggled with two aspects of Old Do­ the second half to lead Duke past the Sweet 16 for only minion's pressure in the first half. The Blue Devils the second time in the history of the program. committed 16 turnovers before the break, maintaining Peppi Browne and Georgia Schweitzer were the cat­ their lead only because the Monarchs often gave them alysts to an 11-2 run in the opening minutes ofthe sec­ the ball right back. ond half that broke open a tight game. Browne's steal At the same time, double and triple-teaming in the and uncontested layup at the 13:41 mark capped the paint held leading scorer Michele VanGorp to just four MORGAN/THE CHRONICLE run and gave Duke a 49-38 lead. points and two shots in the first 20 minutes. LAUREN RICE celebrates as Duke advances to the Elite Eight. A nice feed from Old Dominion's Hamchetou Maiga See ELITK EIGHT on page 6. SPORTSWRAP • DUHS, UNITED METHODIST HOMES DROP MERGER PLAN SEE PAGE 4 P MEN'S LACROSSE STAYS UNDEFEATED SEE SPORTSWRAP, PAGE 10 THE CHRONICLE • F»GE 2 WORLD & NATIONAL MONDAY. MARCH 22,1999 NEWSFILE Clinton pushes for Kosovo peace settlement ByJANEPERLEZ FROM WIRE REPORTS him to agree to the settlement presented NATO ambassadors with a N.Y Times News Service signed in Paris last week by the stepped-up plan for bombing in Ser­ Saudis restrict use of U.S. aircraft against Iraq WASHINGTON — Sunday, the ethnic Albanians who make up bia, a move intended to strengthen Neariy three months of U.S. bombings against Iraq are prov­ Clinton administration dispatched a most of Kosovo's population, or face Holbrooke's position with the Yu­ ing an irritant to ties between the United States and Saudi special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, to NATO airstrikes. goslav leader. Arabia. As senior Saudi officials acknowledge that the king­ meet with Slobodan Milosevic in As Holbrooke prepared to leave The president's national security dom refuses to allow U.S. warplanes based in Saudi to take what senior officials described as a part in what it regards as punitive raids. The kingdom is the Sunday night, Milosevic's forces ap­ adviser, Sandy Berger, said Sunday main base for US. warplanes in the region, and its stand has "last chance" to persuade the Yu­ peared unintimidated, however. Tak­ that another diplomatic push by Hol­ forced the United States to tailor its tactics in what has goslav leader to accept a peace agree­ ing advantage of the absence of more brooke was justified "one final time," become a low-level war against Iraq, by relying more heavi­ ment for Kosovo and avoid bombing than 1,300 international monitors even as the administration came ly on Navy aircraft and on warplanes at other bases. by NATO. who withdrew from Kosovo Saturday, under new criticism that it was Two days after President Bill Clin­ they continued their rampage dithering over what to do about Milo­ ton warned that the Serbs had gone through Kosovo, burning ethnic Al­ sevic. Chechen leader survives assassination attempt beyond "the threshold" of violence in banian villages in a region at the "I think we owe it to the American The leader ofthe breakaway republic of Chechnya survived heart ofthe revolt. an assassination attempt Sunday when a bomb exploded their southern province, Secretary of people," Berger said on the CBS News near his motorcade in the region's major city. Several people State Madeleine Albright said she At NATO headquarters in Brus­ program "Face the Nation." "We owe it were wounded in the blast in central Grozny, including some was sending Holbrooke to present sels, Belgium, where Holbrooke will to our military people, our allies, to of the bodyguards in the motorcade. But Asian Maskhadov, Milosevic with a "stark choice." stop Monday morning before flying make that final attempt, even as the the leader of the separatist region, was unhurt. The explo­ That choice, she said, was for on to Belgrade, U.S.