Sunday, December 19, 2010

#6 Tennessee 82, #2 Stanford 72 (OT)

Wow, what a bloodbath. Just reading the sequence of events in this game report is enough:

Jennette Pohlen, who led Stanford with 24 points, hit a 3-pointer from the wing with 1:07 to go to give the Cardinal a 70-67 lead, but Simmons charged down the floor and answered with her own 3 that sent the crowd of 14,197 into a frenzy.

Glory Johnson stole the ball back on a sloppy pass from Kayla Pedersen, but Stanford got the ball back on a tie-up when Shekinna Stricklen lost control of it. VanDerveer called a timeout, and Kokenis drove the court and attempted a mid-range jump shot just before the buzzer against Kelley Cain, who blocked it.

Stanford struggled with sloppy play early in overtime. Pohlen fouled out less than a minute into OT, and Sarah Boothe committed two turnovers before committing her fifth foul and joining Pohlen on the bench 16 seconds later.

"We just needed to lock down on defense, not foul," Pohlen said. "We needed to keep our hands up, box them out and not let them get second shots."

The Lady Vols (10-2) went 8 of 14 from the foul line in overtime. Cain missed back-to-back foul shots with 2:41 left but grabbed the rebound off the second and hit a jump shot in the middle of the lane to give Tennessee a 75-70 lead that again had the crowd screaming. The Cardinal's only overtime points came on a pair of free throws by Pedersen.

"I thought we got some good looks, and we didn't knock down shots that we needed to," VanDerveer said. "When they got good looks, they made shots."


I'm not sure which I'm happier about - Stanford losing two in a row or Tennessee winning. It's a toss up.

Mechelle Voepel discusses Stanford's loss.

But if Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer is having trouble getting her 800th win, Bentley University Coach Barbara Stevens did not. Stevens has coached at the Division II school outside of Boston for 25 years. Today her team beat C.W. Post to help her reach her milestone - only the fifth NCAA coach to do so. Congrats, coach.

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