TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D7
owners, the league or U.S. Soccer.
“There’s no one looking over the
higher-ups,” she said.
Roux, the executive director of
the U.S. women’s national team
players association, which
brought the complaint against
Dames in 2018, said in a state-
ment that the union brought alle-
gations from members “to hold
management accountable for
both addressing the underlying
issue and for putting measures in
place to ensure it never happens
again.
“There have been multiple, sys-
temic failures to keep players safe
in women’s soccer, and all actors
in that system — including USSF,
NWSL, the players associations,
players, staff, youth sports offi-
cials — must do better to ensure
players’ safety,” Roux said.
Molly Levinson, a representa-
tive of women’s national team
players, including in their lawsuit
against U.S. Soccer over unequal
pay, called the federation’s han-
dling of the allegations “very dis-
appointing.”
“The U.S. Soccer Federation
should provide safe and account-
able mechanisms for players to
report harassment and abuse,
free from retaliation, and, if nec-
essary, take steps to hold to ac-
count anyone who does not ad-
here to proper standards,” Levin-
son said. “USSF utterly failed to
do any of those things in this
case.”
By this summer, when allega-
tions of misconduct against other
coaches began to shake the
NWSL, former Red Stars players
said their minds went to Dames
— and to the time they, too, had
tried to speak up years earlier.
Dames had become the
league’s longest-tenured coach —
the only one left from the early
days of the NWSL’s founding.
Across the NWSL, investigations
were launched, reforms were
promised and four coaches lost
their jobs. But Dames’s name
went unmentioned, his team
marching into the playoffs for the
sixth time.
“It made me think, ‘What hap-
pened over the past three
years?’ ” one player said. “My
teammates gave their stories, and
nothing happened.”
[email protected]than two hours speaking to the
investigator.
That was, she said, the last she
ever heard about the investiga-
tion. Three former Red Stars play-
ers, including one who played on
the team at the time of the investi-
gation, told The Post that they
had wanted to speak to U.S. Soc-
cer investigators but had never
heard from them. Two had left the
team because of Dames’s abuse,
they said.
Sam Johnson, the former Red
Stars player, said the allegations
against Dames are a sign of the
need for an independent and
unbiased governing body, one
that is not beholden to NWSLdaughter’s life, if you pass the ball
backward or sideways one more
f---ing time, I’m taking you off the
field.”
The player was too jarred to
say a word, she said. She simply
lifted her arms, a gesture of
h elplessness, and Dames
screamed, “Don’t you tell me to
calm down.”A complaint comes and goes
By the time an investigator for
U.S. Soccer contacted her in 2018,
the player had been traded to
another team. But she was eager
to tell her story, she said, backing
up Press’s concerns about Dames.
She remembered spending moretargeted her with verbal and
emotional abuse. When she made
a mistake in a game, letting a
player she had been supposed to
defend score, he singled her out
to the media. He did not name
her, but when a reporter asked
why the team had given up goals,
he said it was one player’s fault.
“That person didn’t do their
job.... It’s as simple as that. If I
was Dani,” he told journalists,
referring to a Red Stars team-
mate, “I’d be pissed off.”
The player recalled one game
when Dames singled her out at
halftime in front of her team-
mates, leaning close to her face
and screaming, “I swear on myWe’re better when we’re connect-
ed.’ ”
One of the player’s former
teammates told The Post that she
had seen a “power struggle” un-
fold as her friend began to spend
less and less time with Dames.
“Their relationship was awful,”
the former teammate said. “It
stands out to me how he’d use her
personal life, how he’d really inte-
grate it into his way of coaching
her. He’d say, ‘I know your boy-
friend doesn’t like me.’ It had
nothing to do with soccer. He
loved having power over these
20-something-year-old women.”
When Dames did start to play
her again, the player said, hesometimes told her they would
lose if she didn’t come. At meals,
she said, he often asked her about
her personal life, quizzing her
about her relationship with her
boyfriend.
“I felt like I didn’t have the
option to say no,” the player said.
Early in her professional career,
she said, she often saw Dames
outside of soccer twice a week
and occasionally more.
Dames made multiple com-
ments to the player about her
appearance that made her un-
comfortable, she said. Then there
were frequent texts at all hours:
at 11:30 at night, telling her how
disappointed he was in her or
asking her what she thought
about his lineups. Two other peo-
ple who had viewed the texts
confirmed their timing and fre-
quency.
There was an expectation, she
said, that she use her free time to
make unpaid appearances at
practices for his youth teams,
which played near where players
lived. “It felt like he wanted con-
trol over me,” she said.
After a few years on the Red
Stars, the player started “pushing
back” against Dames, saying no
more often to his invitations, she
told The Post. That was when
“everything changed,” the player
said.
At the beginning of the next
season, the player said, shortly
after Dames met her boyfriend,
he benched her for one of the
team’s preseason games. For two
weeks afterward, she said, Dames
barred her from training with the
first team altogether, making her
practice with the reserves, a
squad below the B-team of substi-
tutes.
“He would take me out of
trainings altogether,” the player
said. “I would leave the trainings
bawling,” she said, or “hyperven-
tilating” enough that she strug-
gled to drive from practice. “It
was two weeks of hell.”
Dames did not hide what he
thought had happened, the play-
er said. “He would say to me
something along the lines of: ‘I
don’t think it’s a coincidence that
you’ve pulled yourself away from
me and you’re playing worse.
NWSL FROM D6
BY GENE WANGnewark — Stifling defense re-
turned for the Virginia men’s
basketball team late in the sec-
ond half against Georgia on
Monday night in the Legends
Classic. The familiar blueprint,
along with Armaan Franklin’s
midrange scoring, sparked the
Cavaliers to a 65-55 win against
their first power-conference op-
ponent this season.
After falling behind by a point
with 9:23 left, Virginia (3-2)
limited the Bulldogs (2-3) to four
field goals the rest of the way.
The Cavaliers went in front to
stay at 49-48 on Jayden Gard-
ner’s driving layup with 6:21 to
play, eventually securing a third
win in four games despite way-
ward shooting — particularly on
three-pointers.
“I think they got a good exam-
ple of, if you lock down, it can
help you withstand a drought or
a cold offense,” Virginia Coach
Tony Bennett said. “For them to
do that, still some errors, but
closer to what it’s going to take
to be in games and hold in
there.”
Franklin finished with 23
points to match a career high,
making 7 of 9 from inside the
three-point line. The transfer
from Indiana went 1 for 7 on
three-pointers but was able to
get to the free throw line, going 6
for 6, and made an array of
step-backs and pull-ups.
His up-and-under floater with
3:19 remaining gave the Cava-
liers a 55-51 lead, and he fol-
lowed that acrobatic shot with a
jumper for a six-point edge.
Georgia never got closer than
two possessions thereafter, and
the Cavaliers made eight of their
last 10 foul shots to secure the
victory.
Virginia also forced 16 turn-
overs that led to 14 points.
Franklin contributed with three
steals, and Reece Beekman add-
ed two on a night when the
Cavaliers limited Georgia to 37
percent shooting, including 3 for
21 (14.2 percent) on three-point-
ers.
Braelen Bridges led the Bull-
dogs with 14 points before foul-
ing out late. Jailyn Ingram had
10 points and a game-high 12
rebounds for Georgia but missed
his last four shots. The Bulldogs
lost by double digits despite a
42-29 rebounding margin, in-
cluding 13-6 offensively.
“I think we have our mo-ments, but we’ve still yet to put a
full 40 [minutes] together,”
Franklin said. “We’re going to
have our ups and downs. Just as
long as we come together in the
end and make those key plays, I
think we’ll be all right, but I
think we took a big step today.”
The Cavaliers will face Provi-
dence on Tuesday night; the
Friars beat Northwestern, 77-72,
in Monday’s second game.
The Cavaliers led for the ma-
jority of the first half before
fading in the closing minutes
and yielding six consecutive
points, allowing Georgia to
move ahead 32-29 with 1:08
remaining.
The final sequence of the first
half was particularly unpleasant
for the Cavaliers, who had drawn
within a point on two free
throws from Clark until Francis-
co Caffaro was assessed his sec-
ond foul with one-tenth of a
second to go on Jaxon Etter’s
heave. After a replay review,
Etter made 2 of 3 at the free
throw line, sending Virginia to
the locker room trailing 34-31.
Here’s what to know about
Virginia’s win:Concerns in the frontcourt
The Cavaliers got just 17
points from their post players,
with Gardner’s 11 leading the
way. Listed at 6-foot-6, Gardner
is an undersized forward who
relies more on positioning and
cunning rather than length to
get to the rim.
But Gardner committed his
third foul early in the second
half and went to the bench for a
lengthy stretch. Forwards Kadin
Shedrick and Caffaro finished
with four fouls apiece, limiting
Bennett’s rotations in the second
half, when he turned to Igor
Milicic Jr. and Carson McCorkle,
among others, to fill out the
lineup.
Shedrick missed both of his
field goal attempts but contrib-
uted team highs of seven re-
bounds and four blocks. On his
final block, with less than three
minutes to play, the 6-11 redshirt
sophomore kept his concentra-
tion to gather the rebound, pro-
viding Virginia with an impor-
tant stop.
Caffaro scored three points on
1-for-2 shooting and went 1 for 3
from the free throw line in 20minutes but added five re-
bounds and a block.Three-point woes continue
The Cavaliers went 5 for 20
from behind the arc, extending a
troubling trend. In addition to
Franklin’s balky performance,
Beekman missed all four of his
three-point attempts. Kihei
Clark, the starting point guard,
was the only true backcourt
player to make more than one
three-pointer; he had two on his
way to 12 points.
Virginia is shooting 29.3 per-
cent on three-pointers this sea-
son and has made more than five
in a game just once.
The dearth of three-point
shooting underscores the cavern-
ous void left when Sam Hauser,
Trey Murphy III and Jay Huff
departed after last season. Frank-
lin was in line to become the
go-to three-point shooter but has
made just 7 for 30 (23.3 percent)
so far.
[email protected]Cavs clamp down late to beat BulldogsVIRGINIA 65,
GEORGIA 55FRANK FRANKLIN II/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kihei Clark, guarding Georgia’s Aaron C ook, scored 12 points for Virginia, which forced 16 turnovers.Legends Classic final:
Virginia vs. Providence
Today, 7:30 p.m., ESPN2ASSOCIATED PRESSCoach Dawn Staley’s top-
ranked South Carolina turned up
its defense in the fourth quarter to
turn away Connecticut.
Aliyah Boston had 22 points
and 15 rebounds, and the Game-
cocks (6-0) held the No. 2 Huskies
(3-1) to three points in the final 10
minutes of a 73-57 victory in the
championship game of the inau-
gural Battle 4 Atlantis women’s
tournament in Paradise Island,
Bahamas.
This was the 61st meeting be-
tween the top two teams in the
Associated Press women’s poll.
The last one was between these
same squads in February. U-
Conn., No. 2 at the time, came
away with the 63-59 overtime win.
l SOUTH FLORIDA 71, OR-
EGON 62: Elisa Pinzan had a
career-high 26 points to go with 10
assists, and the No. 23 Bulls (4-2)
scored 28 points off turnovers to
beat the No. 9 Ducks (3-2) in the
Battle 4 Atlantis third-place game.
The Bulls stretched out a 46-39
lead entering the fourth to 17, then
closed it out after the Ducks made
a late run.
l MICHIGAN 69, OAKLAND
58: Naz Hillmon scored 12 of her
25 points in the fourth quarter
after the No. 13 Wolverines (5-0)
gave up most of an 18-point lead to
help her side pull away from the
Golden Grizzlies (2-3) in Ann Ar-
bor, Mich.
l GEORGE WASHINGTON
54, QUINNIPIAC 50: Trailing by
four after three quarters, the Colo-
nials (3-2) started the fourth on a
9-0 run and held off the Bobcats
(2-3) the rest of the way en route to
a win at Smith Center.
Bearcats storm back in upset
Cincinnati (5-0) mounted a big
first-half charge to take a halftime
lead after trailing by 15 early, then
steadily pulled away from No. 14
Illinois (2-2) in a 71-51 upset win to
make it to the championship game
of the Hall of Fame Classic m en’s
tournament in Kansas City, Mo.
Mike Saunders Jr. scored
20 points and Jeremiah Daven-
port added 19 to lead Cincinnati,
which was 17 of 20 from the foul
line and won the battle of the
boards against the bigger Illinois.
Preseason all-American Kofi
Cockburn had 18 points and seven
rebounds for the Illini in his first
outing of the season after a three-
game suspension.
l UCLA 75, BELLARMINE
62: Peyton Watson had 19 points
after scoring 13 in his first four
games combined, Johnny Juzang
added 13, and the No. 2 Bruins
(5-0) beat the Bulldogs (0-5) in the
Empire Classic in Las Vegas.
l DUKE 107, THE CITADEL
81: The No. 5 Blue Devils (6-0) beat
the Bulldogs (3-2) in Durham,
N.C., after Citadel Coach Duggar
Baucom collapsed on the court
early in the first half and was
hospitalized.
l KENTUCKY 86, ALBANY
61: TyTy Washington Jr. scored 20
points for the second straight
game, and the No. 10 Wildcats
(4-1) beat the Great Danes (0-5) in
Lexington, Ky., f or their fourth
consecutive victory.
l HOUSTON 70, BUTLER 52:
Fabian White Jr. scored 21 points,
and the No. 12 Cougars (4-0) rode a
dominating first half to a win over
the Bulldogs (3-2) in the opening
round of the Maui Invitational in
Las Vegas.
l ARKANSAS 72, KANSAS
STATE 64: Connor Vanover had
14 points, Chris Lykes was perfect
from the foul line down the
stretch, and the No. 13 Razorbacks
(4-0) survived after nearly blow-
ing an 18-point lead against the
Wildcats (2-1) in the Hall of Fame
Classic.
l OHIO STATE 79, SETON
HALL 76: Meechie Johnson Jr. hit
a game-winning three-pointer
with 2.3 seconds left, and the
Buckeyes (4-1) beat the No. 21 Pi-
rates (3-1) in the semifinal of the
Fort Myers (Fla.) Tip-Off.
l FLORIDA 80, CALIFOR-
NIA 60: Colin Castleton scored 16
points, Tyree Appleby added 15,
and the No. 23 Gators (4-0) routed
the Golden Bears (2-3) in the semi-
final of the Fort Myers Tip-Off.
l KENT STATE 74, JAMES
MADISON 69: Malique Jacobs
registered 18 points and seven re-
bounds to lead the Golden Flashes
(2-1) past the Dukes (4-1) in the
first round of the Naples (Fla.)
Invitational.
l GEORGE WASHINGTON
74, WRIGHT STATE 63: James
Bishop had 18 points as the Colo-
nials (2-4) beat the Raiders (1-3) in
the first round of the Naples Invi-
tational.
l RICHMOND 81, HOFSTRA
68: Tyler Burton had 22 points
and Nathan Cayo added 18 on
9-of-11 shooting for the Spiders
(3-2), who rallied from a four-
point halftime deficit to beat the
Pride (1-4) at home.COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP
Top-ranked Gamecocks
smother No. 2 Huskies
SOUTH CAROLINA 73,
CONNECTICUT 57BRYAN BYERLY/ISI PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES
Not all players condemned Rory Dames. “ He’s pushed us,” Morgan Gautrat said, “and at the same time he’s made people better.”