In other words, the other 15 teams in the event would all be taking dead aim. And Ashlock knew one of the teams at a school where he'd coached for 12 years, needed no target practice.

Saturday night, in front of a standing-room-only Wagstaff Gymnasium crowd of at least 3,000, Ashlock's worst fears became reality as the Lady Patriots took a direct and fatal hit, falling 79-69 to the Trinity Valley Community College Lady Cardinals.

The win in their fourth NJCAA title game appearance in as many years gave the Lady cardinals their second consecutive national championship and an unprecedented third in four years.

"This is an incredible feeling," Lady Cardinal coach Kurt Budke shouted after sharing a hug and kiss with wife Shelley, who was clutching the game ball like it was on of their three children. "I say it every year, but to win fur games in five days like this is tough to do and a great, great accomplishment."

The Lady Cardinals (34-2), 132-9 overall and 15-1 in NJCAA tournament games under Budke, used their trademark smothering defense and the smooth play of tournament Most Valuable Player Betty Lennox to deny the Lady Patriots an unbeaten season and their first national title. Central Florida, which also finished second in 1992, Ashlock's first year at the Ocala-based school, closed the season 34-1.

"Central Florida is a great team," Budke said. "They were the second-best team in the tournament."

The Lady Cardinals followed Budke's blueprint to victory of taking Central Florida's Tihana Abrlic, a versatile 6-3 guard/forward, out of the game to near perfection. Abrlic found either Diamond Jackson and Consquela Brown stalking her every move.

"I guaranteed the team we would win if we held her (Abrlic) under a dozen points," Budke said. "Diamond and Consquela did a tremendous job on her."

Abrlic finished with 11 points, managing just two in the opening 20 minutes on a pair of free throws. For the game, Abrlic managed to get off only nine shots, hitting four.

Jackson, in particular, stuck to Abrlic like glue, denying her the opportunity to ever get her hands on the ball in the first half, much less shoot it. When Brown spelling Jackson, there was little, if any, dropoff.

"I felt good at halftime", Budke, who joins Kilgore College's Evelyn Blalock as the only coaches to have led teams to three national titles, said. "I knew then we were going to be able to take 40 (Abrlic) out of the game and we had held a team averaging 113.8 points per game to 35."

Despite shooting just 29 percent in the first 20 minutes, TVCC was up 37-35 at the half after Brown turned a Lady Patriot turnover into layup with 13 seconds left.

The Lady Cardinals played virtually a perfect half in terms of protecting the ball. TVCC turned it over just four times in the first half, the first of which was at the 4:56 mark.

Deronica Robinson, one of only two players (Brown being the other) to have played in the NJCAA title game last year, stepped up her game big-time in the first half to enable the Lady Cardinals to overcome Central Florida. Robinson finished with 18 points, 12 of which were in the first half, and five rebounds and three steals. Robinson was 2-0f-4 from three-point range.

Three-pointers factored heavily into the win. TVCC put the ball up from beyond the arc 32 times, hitting 11. Lennox buried four treys. Katie Ferguson and Jamie McDonald joined Robinson with two each and Jackson had one.

Central Florida, by comparison, was just 2-of-11 from three point range.

While the first half was tightly contested with no team ever managing to lead by more than four, the second half was one of runs, although the Lady Patriots never led by more than one, and that was just once at the 12:21 mark.

The Lady Cardinals, getting points from four different players, outscored Central Florida 9-2 in the opening three minutes of the second half to open up a 46-37 lead and force Ashlock to use a 20-second timeout.

Central Florida returned to the floor and answered with a 10-0 spurt over the next five minutes to go up 47-46. While Shera Looney supplied most of the offensive firepower during the comeback, LaToyna Blanton provided the spark with intensified defensive pressure on McDonald and the ball.

The Lady Pats' run was followed by a 20-second TVCC timeout, one in which Budke brought the Lady Cardinals "face-to-face" with the situation at hand.

TVCC returned to the floor much more inspired than before the timeout. Behind Lennox and Robinson on the offensive end, and the all-out hustle and determination of Alicia Gasiorowska on both ends of the floor, the Lady Cardinals outscored Central Florida 12-2 over the next three minutes to go back up by nine, 58-49.

But the Lady Patriots, after a timeout at the 9:03 mark had one more run left in them. A pair of Abrlic shots found the mark and Eric Jackson drilled a three-pointer as Central Florida pulled even at 58-58 with 7:02 remaining, following a 9-0 run.

Lennox, who finished with 27 points and 20 rebounds, wasted little time stealing Central Florida's momentum after getting even, firing in a three-pointer on TVCC's next possession. Three minutes later, after taking about a minute and–a-half breather on the bench, Lennox return to drive a stake in the Lady Patriots' heart, canning another three-pointer, this one from the top of the perimeter, to put TVCC into a 72-65 lead with 3:00 left.

Conswella Sparrow, Central Florida's top scorer with 19 points, rekindled Central Florida hopes after McDonald had given TVCC a 74-65 lead on a layup after an Abrlic miss with a pair of buckets, one off a rebound and the other following a move along the baseline.

But after an exchange of turnovers and the clock winding down inside a minute, the Lady Patriots were forced to hurry three-point attempts and send TVCC to the free throw line. Unfortunately for the, that meant Lennox stepping to the stripe.

Lennox, who had shattered a 19-year tournament record with 20 free throws in a 78-71 quarterfinal win Wednesday over Louisburg, hit 5-of-6 in the closing 35 seconds, having pulled each rebound after Central Florida misfires.

Appropriately, Lennox grabbed the final rebound and dribbled away the final seven seconds, tossing the ball high above the floor as the final buzzer sounded.