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Home > SECWB News & More! > SEC Tournament News > 2007 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament, DAY 3
2007 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament, DAY 3
Posted: March 15th, 2007 @ 1:40pm
Semifinal Saturday dawned another beautiful day in Duluth. For the first time in several years, the quarterfinals went according to seed and the conferences’ top 4 seeds met in the semis. But from that point on, seeding went out the window. The first game of the evening sent a rumble throughout the SEC, with #4 seed LSU knocking off #1 seed UT 63-54. Pokey Chatman, in her third full year at the LSU helm, was able to do what few coaches in this country ever accomplish: scout UT well, come up with a winning game plan, and then motivate her players to execute that plan. There are great basketball minds across the country who can accomplish steps 1 and 2; the failure usually occurs at step 3 -- execution. LSU executed their plan perfectly, holding All-SEC and All-America candidate Candace Parker to a season-low 4 points. Alexis Hornbuckle stepped up to fill the void, scoring a game-high 29 points on impressive 12 of 18 shooting, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range, but she basically got no supporting help from her teammates. The next leading scorer for UT was Nicky Anosike with 9. Sidney Spencer, who had been impressive in scoring 22 just one day before against South Carolina, was held to 7 points. Meanwhile, LSU brought it; they played one of the most complete 40 minute games I’ve witnessed all season. LSU’s own All-America candidate Sylvia Fowles added yet another impressive double-double to her growing list; she finished with 19 points and 20 rebounds. LSU looks to be peaking at just the right time.
The second game of the night was surprising to most in attendance that it was never really a close game. Vanderbilt, which had lost at Georgia 71-83 in their one meeting this season, stuck with what got them to this point so far and has been their bread-and-butter all year: the 3-point shot. Vandy, the leading 3-point shooters in the nation, shot 8-for-13 from long range on their way to defeating Georgia 81-56. Sophomore Christina Wirth led the way again with 21 points on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range. Post-game, Georgia’s coach Andy Landers expressed his frustration thusly: “It was pretty obvious Vanderbilt did what Vanderbilt wanted to do. They did it the way they wanted to do it, and we didn’t affect it very much. When you're in a tournament and you just don't bring the intensity and toughness you're supposed to have, it's not just a surprise, it's shocking." Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb was pleased with her teams’ defensive effort. They held Georgia to 32.8% shooting for the game. Wirth said it was this defensive effort which led to another stellar performance offensively for Vanderbilt. Coach Balcomb agreed. "I think that was the best defensive effort by a Vanderbilt team I've ever coached," said Balcomb, who is in her fifth year with the Commodores. "That made offense easy."
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