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The best game was the one nobody saw.
While most of the country was sound asleep, Stanford and Alabama punctuated a serious Saturday of women's basketball with a spectacularly entertaining overtime battle that sent the Cardinal on to the Regional finals - where they will be joined by the other three top seeds.
Louisiana Tech, Connecticut and Tennessee had a much easier time of it, however, as form held throughout the brackets. Sure, a couple of number-three seeds slipped in, but the fact that Virginia was playing at home (where the Cavaliers are 16-1 in postseason play) made that win hard to classify as an upset, and Vanderbilt's win over Iowa wasn't exactly a stop-the-presses outcome. Georgia upheld the honor of the second seeds with an easy win over Stephen F. Austin, so the only real surprise was number-six seed Auburn's last-minute win over number-two Penn State in the West.
And since the West was where the excitement was, why not start there?
SEATTLE - It happened twice.
Two seconds left. Alabama has the ball in the paint and a good look at the hoop. Not only that, the Crimson Tide hopes ride on their two best players: Dominique Canty and Shalonda Enis. Both times, the ball hits the backboard, the rim - and bounces away.
The first miss, with Canty shooting, denied Alabama the win in regulation. The second, with Enis shooting, gave Stanford a heartstopping 78-76 overtime win and a trip to the Regional finals.
Crimson Tide Coach Rick Moody compared the feeling to having a wooden stake driven through his heart, and it's easy to understand why. Alabama battled back from a 10-point first half deficit, and then from 11 points down in the second half to lead by eight with 6:32 left and by seven with 4:34 remaining. With Enis scoring almost every time she had the ball (she finished with 30) and Canty's quickness bedeviling top-seeded Stanford, it didn't look like the Cardinal would make it back.
Then Kate Starbird, Stanford's top scorer who had 27 on the night, fouled out with 1:56 left in regulation - and Canty made both free throws following the call to give the Crimson Tide a 71-69 lead.
But there's a reason the Cardinal have been one of the top programs in the history of NCAA basketball, and clutch baskets by Vanessa Nygaard and Jamilla Wideman (who made just one three-pointer, with 58 seconds left) tied the score.
Wideman almost was the goat, however, turning the ball over with 11 seconds left and giving Alabama a chance to win. Canty, who finished with 18 points on six-of-19 shooting, took the inbounds pass and drove all the way to the hoop, forcing a six-footer that failed to drop - and leaving some to wonder Enis, who was all but unstoppable, didn't get the final touch.
The overtime was five more minutes of torture for Alabama, as the Tide failed to make a basket, or even get off many shots. Enis had an easy one with 3:20 left, but her unguarded two-footer came off the front rim and Brittany Ezell's jumper failed to fall as well.
Meanwhile Stanford was busy missing shots and turning the ball over. Luckily, hometown hero Naomi Mulitauopele made an unexpected appearance at center stage. With her Seattle-based family cheering her on in the stands, she posted up just 18 seconds into the OT to give the Cardinal a 76-74 lead. Ezell, just a 59 percent free-throw shooter, rose to the occasion to tie the score with two free throws at 1:59.
But then Mulitauopele seemed an unlikely candidate for hero honors, taking a bad shot and drawing an offensive foul, but her steal with 1:05 left looked like it might turn the tide (so to speak). But Nygaard missed a three with 40 seconds left, and Alabama took control.
Ezell, though, threw the ball out of bounds with 22.5 remaining, and Stanford had one more chance. The Cardinal worked the ball around and finally found Mulitauopele on the left block with 4 seconds left. She turned, bumping the defender, who collapsed, hoping for another charge - but no whistle blew. Mulitauopele fell away, launching a left-handed 10-footer that found, as Dan Patrick would say, nothing but the bottom of the net to put Stanford up 78-76 with 2.7 seconds left.
Naturally, Alabama called time out and came back with a length-of-the-court pass to Enis from Ezell that gave Enis a five-footer, under some pressure, as the clock ran down. Enis had made similar shots all night, but she rushed it a little, thinking she had less time than she actually did - and Alabama's season came to an end.
Mulitauopele, who had four of her 10 points in the overtime, knew she could have been the goat. "All I could hear was my heartbeat," she said. "I saw my defender fall down and I thought, "Please God, don't let there be a whistle."
There wasn't, and Stanford survived to play another day.
When that game began, it was hard to see how the nightcap could be more entertaining than Auburn's 75-69 win over Penn State. After all, there were 16 lead changes and seven ties in the first half alone, and the second half featured a dramatic comeback and seven straight clutch free throws in the last 1:08 by the fourth SEC team to land in the Regional finals.
On top of that, the game was classic inside-outside battle. Auburn dominated the boards, and got 63 of its 75 points from the frontcourt. Penn State, on the other hand, rained in 10 threes, including six by Tiffany Longworth.
Longworth's threes, in fact, were all that kept the game close in the first half, as three of them either gave the Lions the lead or tied the score. Tina Nicholson hit three-of-six for Penn State as well, which was a good thing since All-American Angie Potthoff was rendered ineffective in the first half by the Auburn matchup zone.
But Potthoff got off in the second half, finishing with 18 points and sparking a Lady Lion comeback from 10 points down with 11:28 to go. Her quick inside moves pulled Penn State back into the game, and a pass from Nicholson set up a layup that gave the Lady Lions a 67-66 with 1:34 left.
But Latrish Morris, who finished with 27 points, took over. She scored inside with 1:08 remaining to put Auburn ahead for good, and then drained five straight free throws down the stretch to seal the win. Penn State even tried fouling someone else, but Kristen Mulligan made both of hers as well, and the Lady Lions never got closer than four thereafter.
Tara Williams and Monique Morehouse had 16 and 14 points, respectively, for the winners, and combined for 21 rebounds - a big reason that the Tigers had a 42-33 rebounding edge. That offset the 18 points by Longworth and Potthoff, as did a 21-10 edge on the free throw line.
Still, Penn State never gave up, but once again an old cliche proved true: A good big team will beat a good little team, and that's exactly what happened in Seattle.
by: John Ennis
Correspondent
NACOGDOCHES, TX - A victory against the top ranked team in the country is no easy task, especially when you're playing in the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA tournament.
A victory looks even less promising when you find yourself down 31-14 at the half after hitting just seven of 30 from the field including zero-of-five from behind the three-point arc.
That was exactly the position that the Texas Tech Lady Raiders found themselves in against the top-ranked, top-seeded Lady Techsters' of Louisiana Tech. So it wasn't really much of a surprise, though Texas Tech made a late run before falling 66-55. In fact, the game wasn't really that close, because the Lady Techsters dominated the game, despite hitting just 14 of 35 shots in the first half.
Still, a 16-2 Lady Techster spurt to close out the half put Texas Tech in a less than enviable position at the intermission.
Luckily for the Lady Raiders, they were able to find an answer to their miserable first-half shooting performance.
Behind the outside shooting of freshman guard Rene Hanebutt and the inside play of senior post Michi Atkins the Lady Raiders were able to cut the 17-point halftime deficit down to six points with just over three minutes remaining in the game.
The Lady Raiders, trailed by 16 points with 7:38 remaining, used a 12-2 run to tighten the game up at 56-50 with 3:15 left to play. The Texas Tech run was fueled by the perimeter shooting of Hanebutt, who finished the game with 15 points and loosened up the inside for Atkins. Atkins, a first team UPI and BWA All-American, scored 15 of her game-high 21 points in the second half.
Though the Lady Raiders made a game of it in the second half, they never came up with an answer for physical inside play of the Lady Techsters' 6-4 senior center Racquel Spurlock, who finished with 20 points and a game-high 17 rebounds.
Down the final stretch Spurlock converted two crucial lay-ups and hit a foul shot to score five of the Lady Techsters' final seven points, answering the Lady Raiders' run and increasing the Louisiana Tech lead to 63-50 with 1:11 to play.
Hanebutt was able to hit another three-pointer and freshman guard Julie Lake converted a lay-up, but the Lady Techsters' were able to hit three of five free throws for the victory and right to advance to the Midwest Regional Championship game against Georgia for a berth in the Final Four.
"Racquel Spurlock just continues to show that she is a really great basketball player," said Louisiana Tech coach Leon Barmore, who his aiming for his eighth Final Four appearance. "When they missed, she got the defensive boards."
It was obvious that the Texas Tech defense was focused on stopping the backcourt combo of Kendra Neal and Debra Williams, which they did surprisingly well. Williams, Louisiana Tech's leading scorer, a Naismith Player of the Year finalist and second-team All-American, was held to four of 14 from the field for only 10 points. Neal, the Lady Techsters' senior team leader, was held to only one of 7 from the field for three points.
"Spurlock had an outstanding game," Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp said. "We didn't pack it in as much as we usually do. We were concerned about the guard play of Neal and especially Williams on the perimeter."
While succeeding in containing the Techsters' backcourt, the Lady Raiders got burned by Louisiana Tech's front court combo of Spurlock and Vickie Johnson.
"That's usually what happens when you play a great team, they have an answer for everything you throw at them," Sharp said.
Johnson finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and a lot of respect for Spurlock's play under the glass.
"I try to get out of her way," the 5-9 Johnson said. "I don't want to get a (el)bow in the eye."
Spurlock and Johnson's performances were paramount, because it took away from one of Texas Tech's keys to victory all season long - outrebounding their opponents. This time, it was 52-36 the other way, and that pretty much told the story.
Also hurting the Lady Raiders was their lack of depth. While Louisiana Tech freshman Monica Maxwell contributed seven points, five rebounds, two assists, and two steals in 18 minutes off of the bench, Texas Tech got no points, only four rebounds, and a single assist from its bench.
The Lady Raiders loss ended more than just their season and the career of Atkins. Texas Tech was the last Southwest Conference basketball team, men's or women's, to take the floor as a member of the SWC in its final year of competition.
Second-seeded Georgia was just too talented for upstart Stephen F. Austin, ending the 11th-seeded Ladyjacks' Cinderella season 78-64.
The Ladyjacks were able to partially slow down Georgia's well-rounded Saudia Roundtree, but allowed 6-3 center Tracy Henderson to dominate the paint on her way to 20 points and 10 rebounds.
The game started out as planned for the Ladyjacks, as they used their pressure defense to jump out to a quick 8-3 lead and kept that lead in front of the home fans for the first 11 minutes of the game. The score remained close in the first half until Henderson and Roundtree scored the Lady Bulldogs' last 10 points to give them a 42-34 half-time lead.
Georgia's12-4 run at the beginning of the second half pretty much sealed the win, though SFA was able to cut the margin to eight points with 4:45 remaining in the contest. But Georgia, the Southeastern Conference Champion, made its free throws and added fuel to the argument that the Bulldogs should have had a number-one seed all along.
"Georgia is an awesome team," Ladyjack coach Royce Chadwick said. "We tried fronting (Henderson), and they'd lob it over our heads. So we tried playing behind her and she was so powerful she just scored right over us."
Katrina Price led SFA with 22 points, but hit just eight-of-25 shots. The Ladyjacks shot just 32.4 percent overall, which offset their 51-39 advantage on the boards, and sent Georgia onto the regional finals.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - Jenny Boucek was the fourth leading scorer for Virginia, and the fourth leading rebounder. She also had four turnovers, made just three of seven free throws and forced a couple shots.
Down the stretch, though, the intense senior guard combined with quicksilver junior Tora Suber to deny second-seeded Old Dominion a spot in the Regional finals. Virginia's sedate march to victory, which seemed assured with a 42-35 lead with 14:50 left, suddenly became a scramble for survival when Esther Benjamin's two free throws tied the score at 44 2:05 later. Mery Andrade put the Lady Monarchs ahead at 11:27 and it was 52-49 ODU with eight minutes left.
Then Boucek and Suber took over. Boucek's 12-footer cut the lead to one at 7:55, and then a sacrifice-your-body drive, basket and foul put Virginia ahead 45 seconds later. After she picked herself up off the floor, she buried the free throw to make it 54-52, and Virginia led the rest of the way.
Suber's quickness had a lot to do with that, and she finished with 26 points because the Lady Monarchs simply had no one to match up with her. Monick Foote, who wound up with 13, also contributed five key points down the stretch as Virginia coasted home with a 72-60 victory.
Old Dominion's loss was a blow to the team's foreign legion - which included 6-5 Clarisse Machanguana from Mozambique and Ticha Penicheiro and Andrade from Portugal. Though Andrade led the Monarchs with 17, only Shonda Deberry joined her in double figures, and she had only 10.
There were two significant statistical differences that also told a key part of the tale. Led by Suber's 12 attempts, Virginia got to the free throw line 30 times to ODU's 18, and the Cavaliers hit four-of-11 three-pointers while the Lady Monarchs were zero-of-seven.
Tennessee had no such struggles with Kansas, dominating the Jayhawks en route to a 92-71 win. The Volunteers are scoring more than 90 points a game in the tournament, and saw 10 players score Saturday, including five in double figures.
Latina Davis led the way with 18 and Chamique Holdsclaw had 16 as Tennesse shot 53 percent from the field, outrebounded Kansas 43-30 and led by 19 at the half.
Angie Halbleib's 21 points and Charisse Sampson's 18 (with three-of-four threes) were the Kansas highlights. The Mideast
ROSEMONT, ILL. - Every once in a while, we're reminded that 40 minutes isn't as long as it seems. Especially if you're standing on the court in a black and gold uniform, at the wrong end of a 12-3 run.
"In a 40-minute game, it's very difficult to win when you only play for 10 minutes," said Iowa head coach Angie Lee after Saturday night's regional semifinal. Vanderbilt's stifling defense held the Hawkeyes at bay for ten long minutes early in the first half, while senior Sheri Sam sparked a 12-3 run that Iowa never recovered from.
Vandy used the run to coast to a 74-63 victory over Iowa and propel themselves into the regional championships against UConn on Monday.
"It took us too long to be effective. We didn't move the ball sharp enough and we hesitated on our shots," said Iowa sophomore Tiffany Gooden. "It took us too much time to adjust."
And up against a tough Vanderbilt zone, time was one thing the Hawkeyes didn't have to spare. "After the SEC Tournament, we had a mini-camp where we just concentrated on defense," said Vanderbilt head coach Jim Foster.
The effort certainly paid off, because the closest Iowa came to rallying was when they cut the lead to nine with 1:06 left. Sam turned in an incredible 30-point performance to lead the Vanderbilt offense, and never once did she show signs of slowing down. The 6-1 forward scored all 12 of the points in that debilitating first-half run, and went 12-for-17 for the game, including three 3-pointers.
"I didn't think one player could beat us, but she did," said Iowa sophomore Nadine Domond. "Sheri Sam is the real deal," agreed Lee. "I thought several times we had busted up their plays and she still scored."
Sam and Foster were both quick to spread the credit around. Said Foster, "We tried to keep the scoring balanced. Sheri was in a zone, but she also helped raise the other players to another level."
Sam credited her high-scoring performance to her teammates' ability to move the ball. "Our defense created those shots," she said. "They got me the ball, and I was able to hit the open shot."
Whether they wanted a balanced scoring attack or not, Sam was the only Commodore in double figures on the final box score.
Junior Angela Gorsica led Vandy's other contributing scorers with nine. Iowa had three players in doubles figures: Domond had 19, Gooden 16, and sophomore Shannon Perry 11.
The matchup between Connecticut and San Francisco ended just the way you might have expected it would by looking at their seeds - or their practices the day before. The top-seeded Huskies rolled over the Lady Dons, 72-44, ending the 12th-seed Cinderella team's tournament run.
The defending national champions held San Francisco's offense to a mere 16 points in the second half, as they themselves shot 52 percent from the field.
It was a result you could predict if you were around for Friday's team practices. Even then, the Huskies played with an intensity and a confidence that San Francisco didn't come close to matching. The Huskies have been here before, and it shows. For Connecticut, the no-pressure approach seems to work best.
Before the game, senior captain Jennifer Rizzotti said, "We usually let them worry about us versus the other way around. That's just our style."
Head coach Geno Auriemma also commented on this lack of pressure, explaining that "no one lost as much to graduation as we did. We know that it takes time to mold that team into this team -- so, no, we don't feel as much pressure to win it all."
"All in all, I think we did what we set out to do," said Auriemma after the game. "I'm really happy for our team and I'm really happy to be playing on Monday."
Sophomore Nykesha Sales and junior Kara Wolters both tossed in 21 points for Connecticut, with junior Carla Berube adding 18. San Francisco's Valerie Gillon was held to just 13 points, and junior Julie Murdent added 10 for the Lady Dons.
