The 1985 NCAA Division I women's basketball championship game was the final game of the

1985 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament The 1985 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament began on March 14 and ended on March 31 and featured 32 teams. The Final Four consisted of Old Dominion, Northeast Louisiana, Western Kentucky, and Georgia, with Old Dominion defeating Ge ...

. It determined the champion of the 1984–85 NCAA Division I women's basketball season and was contested by the Georgia Lady Bulldogs and the

Old Dominion Lady Monarchs The Old Dominion Monarchs are composed of 18 intercollegiate athletic teams representing Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk, Virginia. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming, and tennis. W ...

. The game was played on March 31, 1985, at the

Frank Erwin Center The Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center (originally Special Events Center) was a multi-purpose arena located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. It was also sometimes referred to as "The Drum" or "The Superdrum", owing to ...

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. After trailing by a single point at halftime, No. 5 Old Dominion defeated No. 8 Georigia 70–65 to capture the NCAA national championship. ODU's Tracy Claxton was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

Participants

Georgia Lady Bulldogs

The Lady Bulldogs, who represented the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

, were led by head coach

Andy Landers Andrew Grady Landers (born October 8, 1952) is an American former college basketball coach who was head women's basketball coach at the Georgia Lady Bulldogs basketball, University of Georgia from 1979 to 2015. Landers graduated from Friendsvill ...

, in his 5th season at the school. Georgia opened the season ranked No. 1 in the AP poll. Playing one of the toughest schedules in the country, the Lady Bulldogs saw their ranking slowing decline through the season and landed at No. 8 in the final poll. In the NCAA tournament, Georgia defeated Tennessee Tech, UCLA, and No. 3 Long Beach State to reach their second NCAA Final Four in three seasons. They won 91–78 over No. 14

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

in the national semifinal to reach the national championship game with a 29–4 record.

Old Dominion Lady Monarchs

The Lady Monarchs, represented the

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (ODU) is a Public university, public research university in Norfolk, Virginia, United States. Established in 1930 as the two-year Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary, it began by educating people with fewer ...

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...

, were led by head coach

Marianne Stanley Marianne Crawford Stanley (born April 29, 1954) is an American basketball coach. She previously served as the head coach of the Washington Mystics and Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Born in Yeadon, Pennsyl ...

in her 8th season at the school. They began the season ranked No. 3 in the AP Poll, and held the No. 1 ranking for eight weeks in December and January. ODU feel to No. 7 in February before rising to No. 5 for the final two polls of the season. Old Dominion was the No. 2 seed in the West region of the NCAA tournament and defeated Syracuse, No. 12 NC State, and No. 7 Ohio State to reach their second NCAA Final Four in three seasons. In the National semifinal, the Lady Monarchs defeated No. 2 NE Louisiana, 57–47, to move to 30–3 and set up the championship game matchup with Georgia.

Starting lineups

Game summary

Media coverage

The game was broadcast on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

References

{{1985 Old Dominion Lady Monarchs basketball navbox

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

NCAA Division I women's basketball championship games College basketball tournaments in California NCAA Division I Women NCAA Division I women's basketball championship game Women's sports in Texas Old Dominion Monarchs women's basketball Georgia Lady Bulldogs basketball