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Home > SECWB News & More! > SEC Teams > Vanderbilt > Vandy Defeats Iowa State, Wins Thanksgiving Tournament
Vandy Defeats Iowa State, Wins Thanksgiving Tournament
by LeAnne Harrington, SECWB.com
Posted: November 26th, 2007 @ 11:42pm
Source: View Box Score
Vanderbilt faced an eerily similar opponent in the final of their Thanksgiving Tournament, but déjà VU was not kind to the visitors as Vandy came away with a victory, defeating the Iowa State Cyclones 62-53. Vanderbilt, which led the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage last season, was facing a tough team that came into yesterday’s matchup with 2 players that had combined for an astonishing nineteen 3-pointers in their last two games. Vanderbilt Coach Melanie Balcomb said in reference to the Cyclones: “They're a 3-point team. They love to skip pass, spread the floor, skip it, shoot the three and then go inside, similar to what we do. We just really wanted to take them out of their game by pressuring the ball and dictating on defense and I think we did a great job of doing that."
Balcomb has been pleased all season with the play of her upperclassmen trio of Liz Sherwood, Christina Wirth and Jen Risper, but Balcomb had noted that her underclassmen needed to step up to the plate and become more of a factor. Yesterday’s game proved they got the point, with a variety of bench players coming in and contributing big minutes. Vanderbilt was led in scoring by sophomore Lauren Lueders, who scored a career-high 14 points in her first start of the season, and Merideth Marsh and Amber Norton came off the bench to score 11 and 10 points respectively. Balcomb was especially pleased with the play of Norton, saying, “Amber just came in and was a difference maker, not just on offense but on defense she did a great job. We had trouble stopping them in the post, so I went with Amber for her defense and then she ended up doing really well offensively. It was good to see her carry over her practice habits to the game." Junior Christina Wirth scored 10 points and added 6 assists, and was named the tournament MVP.
It was a tightly contested game, with the Commodores leading 29-23 at the half. The Cyclones cut the Commodore lead to two (35-33) early in the second half, but Vandy hit three straight 3-pointers to provide themselves with a comfortable cushion. Iowa State cut the lead to single digits on several more occasions, but Vandy never got rattled, even when ISU kept sending the Commodores to the free-throw line in the closing minutes, an Achilles’ heel for Vandy in several of their earlier games. The Cyclones had hurt Vandy with too many second-chance opportunities in the first half, but the Commodores limited them to only one offensive board in the second half. Iowa State’s potent 3-point threat was not near the factor it had been in their prior games; Vanderbilt had set a goal of limiting the Cyclones to five 3-pointers for the game, and coach Balcomb said the team was actually bummed that ISU hit seven in this tournament final. Iowa State was led by Nicky Wieben with 15 points and 9 rebounds, and was named to the all-tournament team for her efforts.
2007 Vanderbilt Thanksgiving All-Tournament Team:
Christina Wirth, Vanderbilt -- MVP
Jennifer Risper, Vanderbilt
Liz Sherwood, Vanderbilt
Alison Lacey, Iowa State
Nicky Wieben, Iowa State
Krista Phillips, Michigan
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