Harper one of the pieces

Certainly, there were other players from her team who were just as worthy of being named Most Outstanding Player of the 2006 Women's Final Four.

And on that point, you would have not gotten much of a debate from Laura Harper.

After all, when it came time for the award-winner to be announced after Maryland's 78-75 overtime triumph against top-seeded Duke in last night's national championship game, Harper happily chanted ''C-Lang! C-Lang! C-Lang!" along with her Terrapin teammates in the hopes 6-foot-2-inch sophomore center Crystal Langhorne would be selected.

So you could imagine Harper's surprise when she heard her name resonate over the public address system at TD Banknorth Garden. She was as shocked as anyone.

''I really wasn't expecting it," said the 6-4 sophomore center/forward from Elkins Park, Pa., who helped second-seeded Maryland capture its first national championship over Atlantic Coast Conference foe Duke by scoring 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting and grabbing 7 rebounds in 37 minutes.

''I think my dad put it best when I gave him a hug," Harper said as she sat on the dais at the postgame news conference flanked by teammates Langhorne, Marissa Coleman, Shay Doron, and Kristi Toliver, all of whom scored in double figures. ''He said, 'You tell this team it was a team MVP.' We're like the true definition of a team, and tonight the better team won."

Harper, who tallied a career-high 24 points in Sunday's 81-70 semifinal triumph over North Carolina, wasn't very flashy. She didn't make the game's biggest basket. That honor was reserved for Toliver, the courageous freshman guard who curled around a key-top screen and buried a clutch 3-pointer over the outstretched hands of 6-7 Duke center Alison Bales to tie it, 70-70, with 6.1 seconds left in regulation.

''Duke has very, very talented players, but we play together, we stuck together, and we showed emotion like a team," Harper said. ''I mean, KT hit an MJ-type shot and everybody came up big tonight, so you can't even really put an MVP on this team."

Duke junior guard Lindsey Harding, voted the best singer on the Blue Devils' squad by her teammates, hit all the right notes in the first half when she seemed to make every shot she threw at the basket. Certainly, Harding seemed like a runaway candidate for Most Outstanding Player after she scored 13 first-half points on 6-for-8 shooting to help the Blue Devils take a commanding 38-28 lead.

Harper, meanwhile, led the Terrapins with 9 first-half points on 3-for-7 shooting, including 3 of 4 from the foul line.

Harding faded in the second half as she went 0 for 6 from the field (to wind up with 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting for the night) before fouling out with 34.2 seconds left in 0T. But Harper remained on the court, coming up big for the Terrapins with 7 second-half points that came in a decisive 30-17 run that enabled Maryland to erase a 13-point deficit (45-32) with 14:53 left.

''Every player stepped up so big and in different games and that's what makes our team so dangerous," said Doron, when asked whom she would have voted for Most Outstanding Player. ''You really can't pick out one player that is outstanding, but obviously we all are. Harp deserves it just as much as everyone. But everyone is so important to this team. This team is so deadly at every single position, which is why we won the national championship, because nobody can stop us at any position."

To underscore that point, Harper ranked fifth in scoring (11.3 ppg) on a starting five that ranked as the nation's second-highest scoring offense and was led by Langhorne (17.4 ppg).

''I'm so proud, obviously, to see Laura Harper be named Most Outstanding Player," said Maryland coach Brenda Frese. ''Obviously, when you look at someone like Laura and all the hard work that had to go into this season -- she ruptures her Achilles' tendon last season, sits out all year, loses the year, and then for her to be able to come out and perform like she did in this tournament is just a tremendous thing."

Certainly, it was worthy of being honored.

But, as she departed the dais and got pulled away in a different direction from her teammates, Harper was again asked for whom she would have voted for the award she just received.

Before she disappeared behind a curtain, Harper turned and called out, ''C-Lang."