CHARLOTTE, NC -- The four best women's collegiate basketball teams in America put on quite a show in the NCAA semifinals at the University of North Carolina, and the two teams left standing at the long evening's end had definitely earned their trip to the Final Four.
Georgia, upset over its number-two seed, had the easier time of it, though the Lady Dogs made it hard on themselves by forgetting how to run the clock or make free throws down the stretch, but the final 86-76 margin over Stanford reversed the old cliche about the game being closer than the score indicated. For 10 minutes, the Cardinal was right there, but after that it was the Saudia Roundtree show -- and Stanford was cast as the noble loser.
Tennessee, on the other hand, went to war with defending champion Connecticut, and the Huskies somehow scrapped their way into overtime before finally falling to a Volunteer team that will definitely need a day of rest after a superb advertisement for the women's game. The 88-83 Tennessee win was a vastly entertaining slugfest featuring great plays and great players -- and supplied plenty of highlights for SportsCenter.
The games also supplied plenty of ammunition for those who believe there's the Southeastern Conference, and then there's everybody else. Both Tennessee and Georgia are from the powerful SEC, with Georgia the regular season champ and Tennessee the tournament winner.
You can't give Michelle Marciniak too many chances to beat you -- if you do, the senior guard will eventually nail the coffin shut, as defending Connecticut found out.
The Huskies put the normally reliable Marciniak on the free throw line four times in the last four minutes of regulation -- and she uncharacteristically missed twice. And then, with seven seconds left, she gambled and tried to steal a pass intended for Nykesha Sales. She didn't get it, and Sales calmly dropped in a three-pointer with Latina Davis in her face to send the game into overtime.
Of course, it was Marciniak's two free throws with 13 seconds left that had put Tennessee up by three, and it was her drive to the hoop with 2:04 left that gave the Volunteers a 71-69 lead. That's what coaches expect from senior guards as heralded as Marciniak (who started her career at Notre Dame), and in the overtime, she turned it up yet another notch.
All in all, Marciniak scored 11 of her 21 points in the last nine minutes of the game and simply took over in overtime. She made a free throw with 1:42 left to put Tennessee up for good and then all but sealed the win with two more free throws with 18 seconds to go.
Her final line of 21 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals was topped only by the brilliant Sales, who had a career high 28 (including four-of-five from beyond the arc), six rebounds and five assists.
But numbers don't tell the story of this marvelous game, which featured 25 lead changes and so many key plays that it would take a CD-ROM to describe them all. As proof, consider that Connecticut point guard Jennifer Rizzotti has yet to be mentioned, and the senior guard changed the course of the game time and time again under intense pressure.
It started innocuously enough, with Connecticut up 13-11, but Tennessee ran off an 11-0 streak and eventually built up a 28-17 lead. The Huskies looked dead during this stretch, and it appeared the Volunteers would have an easy time breaking their three-game losing streak to Connecticut (including a loss in last year's NCAA title game).
But Connecticut somehow managed to get close, as Sales and Rizzotti hit threes in the last 1:15 to cut the margin to 34-30 at the half.
Then, after that tasty appetizer, the teams got down to business. Abby Conklin would toss in a Tennessee turnaround. Connecticut's Carla Berube would slice through the traffic to the basket. Pashen Thompson would answer with some inside muscle. And whenever needed, Sales, Rizzotti and Marciniak would make a big play.
Still, Tennessee fashioned a 62-52 lead with 9:27 left, before going ice cold and scoreless for 4:42. During that span, the Huskies jammed the ball inside to 6-7 Kara Wolters and made room for Rizzotti to work her magic -- and she did. A brilliant pass to Berube put Connecticut ahead 63-62 with 6:18 left, and after that, neither team led by more than three until Latina Davis' free throws with three seconds left determined the final margin.
Both teams can look back and feel they might have won in regulation. Marciniak's missed free throws, her ill-fated gamble on the pass to Sales, Wolters fouling out for no apparent reason with 1:19 to go, a couple of questionable calls and Connecticut's failure to shoot or foul quickly enough to give the Huskies more time were all the subject of post-game analysis, as was Marciniak's three-pointer at the buzzer that was right on line, but just short.
In overtime, the most critical play was a missed layup by Berube with 1:06 left. Purists will lament her decision to try a right-handed layup on a drive from the left, and Berube undoubtedly will too -- as her awkward shot rolled away and Connecticut never really recovered. The final hopes expired when Tiffani Johnson blocked Rizzotti's three-pointer with four seconds left, and the Huskies' dream of a second straight title landed in the arms of Davis.
"We just didn't have enough at the end," said Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, and the Huskies also didn't have enough at the end of the bench. Tennesee's non-starters outscored Connecticut's reserves 16-4 and in this game, 12 points might as well have been a thousand.
But the only losers on this night were the Huskies, for anational prime-time TV audience saw women's college basketball at its best, and at its most exciting.
At least Stanford made it close.
When Georgia was outclassing the Cardinal in a 53-36, 20-minute display of quickness, shooting and muscle, it looked all that talk about the weakness of Pac-10 basketball had more than a little merit. Stanford, after all, went 18-0 in the Pac-10 and dominated a league that hasn't exactly earned the respect of the Eastern establishment.
It was a great game for the first 10 minutes, with the teams trading baskets and highlight film material. But class will tell, and Georgia exploded.
With Saudia Roundtree leading the way, the Lady Dogs outrebounded the much taller Cardinal, stifled the Californians' offense and displayed their limitations for all the world to see. With the score 73-55 and 10 minutes left, attention began to wander and discussion turned to the thrill-a-minute pace of the opening game.
But then Georgia relaxed a little, forgetting perhaps that Stanford has been to five Final Fours in the past six years, and that basketball is basketball and athletes are athletes (as one overplayed ad reminds us) -- no matter where they come from.
Stanford slowly climbed back into the game, finally working the ball inside. Roundtree, who played 36 minutes, lost a little zip and La'Keshia Frett started shooting every time she touched the ball. Still, it was 81-66 with 4:23 remaining and fans were thinking of the drive home and a good night's sleep. But Jamilla Wideman, who finished with 11 points in a gutty effort, Kate Starbird (20 points) and Naomi Mulitauaopele (15) chipped away, and 6-3 Georgia post Tracy Henderson, who had 17 points on eight of 11 shooting, fouled out.
Mulitauaopele took advantage of Georgia's lack of inside depth and scored to make it 81-74 with 2:07 left and then Starbird stole a lazy pass and suddenly it was 81-76 with 1:59 remaining -- and plenty of time for a comeback.
The Lady Dogs then proceeded to miss free throws, rush shots and keep the ball away from Roundtree for the next 90 seconds -- but Stanford simply didn't have enough juice left to cut the margin. Wideman missed a layup, Vanessa Nygaard missed three three-pointers (the Cardinal was just two of 17 on the night) and eventually Frett made three free throws to extend the margin to an unbeatable eight in the final half minute.
Frett wound up with 22 for the night, including eight rebounds, but the line of the evening belonged to Roundtree: 26 points, eight-of-14 from the floor, nine-of-nine from the line, six rebounds (at 5-7) and seven assists. She was simply too quick and too good for Stanford to contain, and until the ball mysteriously was kept out of her grasp down the stretch, she made every big play the Lady Dogs needed.
Olympia Scott had 16 for Stanford, to go along with 10 rebounds, and Mulitauaopele had 15 off the bench -- but in the end, Stanford's only comfort is that the only two seniors on the roster seldom play, and that former coach Tara VanDerveer and Olympic volleyball player Kristin Folkl will be back next year as well.
Georgia was simply too good, even after making a cartload of mistakes in the late going, and overcame a 17-of-31 performance from the free throw line. And of course, there was always Roundtree, the dominant player in this game, and almost every other game she's played in. With her on the outside and Henderson on the inside, there's just not much anybody can do to stop the Lady Dogs, no matter which coast they come from.
