|
Home > SECWB News & More! > Our Staff & Contributors > LeAnne Harrington > Featured Columns > 2008 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament , Day 3 Recap, Part 2
2008 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament , Day 3 Recap, Part 2
by LeAnne Harrington, SECWB.com
Posted: March 10th, 2008 @ 2:12am
Game 10: #2 seed Tennessee Lady Vols vs. #3 seed Vanderbilt Commodores. Nashville’s Sommet Center, which lies about 2 miles from Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym, has been kind to the Commodores in the past. Sommet, previously known as the Gaylord Entertainment Center, hosted the 2002 and 2004 SEC Women’s Tournaments, both of which were won by Vanderbilt. With their quarterfinal win over Auburn, the Commodores brought an 8-0 record on this court into their semifinal against the Lady Vols, but they saw that perfect streak end as they fell to the Vols by a score of 66-49. Unlike their previous losses to the Vols this season, Vanderbilt came out of the blocks on fire, jumping out to a quick 18-8 lead. But from the 12:45 mark until the end of the first half, UT outscored Vandy 29-10 to go into the locker room with a 37-28 advantage. Vanderbilt, which came into the tournament as the conference leader and one of the tops in the nation in three-point field goal percentage, was held to only 1-of-12 from behind the arc in the first half. Vanderbilt’s top two sharpshooters, junior forward Christina Wirth and sophomore guard Merideth Marsh combined to hit only 1-of-9 treys in the first 20 minutes. When asked about Vandy’s woes from three point range, UT coach Pat Summitt replied, “I think Vanderbilt has been very committed to the three ball, and I think we did a better job of extending our defense.” Indeed they did, changing defenses to a switching man which allowed them to contest all of Vanderbilt’s shots more effectively, especially from outside.
The second half proved to be more of the same, although Vanderbilt made some adjustments themselves, holding the Vols to a season-low 22.2% field goal percentage in the second half on 6-of-27 shooting. Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb stated: “we held them to 26 points in the second half, and this is a team that scores 80 and 90 a night, so I think that was definitely a big part of our game plan and was successful.” But Vanderbilt’s loss ultimately was due to the fact that they couldn’t knock down their own shots. UT’s defense had a lot to do with that, but Vanderbilt wasn’t connecting even when they set solid screens and got open looks.
UT was led by Candace Parker with 25 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 blocks and a steal. Alexis Hornbuckle added 14 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals, and Nicky Anosike pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds to go with 7 points and 4 assists. Jennifer Risper was Vanderbilt’s only double digit scorer with 14 points, and she grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds.
Up next for UT: the tournament final against the #1 seed LSU Tigers.
|
|
|
|
