March is not for the weak. In the world of women’s basketball, March comes in like a lion and out like a tiger. No lambs here. Lambs don’t play defense, clawing, gnawing defense. These are fierce hunters circling their prey on the hardwood, stalking a championship.
There’s very little that’s sweet about these 16 to emerge from the opening rounds of this championship series. Sure, there are a few sweet storylines – Cinderella Marist and NC State rallying around its cancer-stricken coach – but the wins behind the stories contain no saccharine; it’s all grit and grind.
The really impressive wins, the ones that have produced the many upsets of this tournament, have been built on defense. The biggest to fall in the second round was defending champion Maryland, whom many expected to return to the Final Four despite a few disappointing losses this season and its No. 2 seeding. No. 7 Mississippi set a turtle trap for the Terps and didn’t let go. The Rebels had 15 steals and scored 42 points off 29 turnovers – 20 in the first half -- in their 89-78 win on Tuesday in Hartford.
Maryland had embarrassed Ole Miss in an early season tournament, 110-79, but that was before the Rebels had found their running, gunning, trapping comfort zone, coach Carol Ross said. The traps were too much in the rematch.
“It was all about our defense, all about trapping, all about stealing and about making plays,” said guard Ashley Awkward – yep, that’s her name – who finished with 22 points. “That lead gave us a cushion in the final stretch.”
The Ole Miss offense was potent, too, with Armintie Price putting up a game-high 29 points. After recording three steals in the game, Price is four away from 400 in her career. If she reaches that, she’d be the second player in women’s NCAA history with with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists and 400 steals. The first is former USC star Cheryl Miller.
Mississippi will play No. 3 Oklahoma in the Dayton regional semifinals. The Sooners beat Marquette, 78-47, on Monday.
Another 7-2 matchup produced an upset, thanks to defense, and put a MAC team in the Sweet 16 for the first time. Bowling Green took down Vanderbilt, 59-56, forcing 20 turnovers, including nine steals and holding one of the best point guards in the country, Dee Davis, to no points and six assists. Only two Vandy players scored in double figures: Carla Thomas had 12 and Liz Sherwood 18. Bowling Green had five players in double figures.
“Don’t pinch me,” Bowling Green coach Curt Miller said. “Amazing. Our defensive game plan, and the execution of the game plan on one-day prep was phenomenal. We didn’t want to give up any easy 3-point shots to the best 3-point shooting team in the country.”
Bowling Green will face No. 3 Arizona State on Saturday.
No. 4 Rutgers, known for its defense since C. Vivian Stringer took the coaching reins in 1995, locked down No. 5 Michigan State, especially down low, in its 70-57 win. The Bronx’s Kia Vaughn manhandled 6-9 Allyssa DeHaan, pushing her out of position, getting her in foul trouble and holding her to 6 points. Vaughn, 6-4, scored 16, grabbed four rebounds, blocked four shots and had two steals.
Rutgers meets overall No. 1 Duke on Saturday in Greensboro, N.C. Duke thumped the Scarlet Knights, 85-45, in December at the RAC, but don’t count out Rutgers. They’ve been playing so well on the road lately – beating Connecticut in Hartford for their first Big East championship – that Stringer sees the location as an advantage.
In the other 4-5 game, the Bears and the Wolfpack heard the call of the wild and fought into overtime before North Carolina emerged victorious, 78-72, over 2005 champs Baylor. As if NC State needed more adversity, with coach Kay Yow battling stage four cancer yet returning to the sidelines only to have to deal with her father’s death on Selection Monday, but star player Khadijah Whittington, who has embodied Yow’s determination on the court, was sick Tuesday and needed an IV at halftime. Still, Whittington scored a career-high 23, corralled 11 rebounds with three steals and two blocks in 38 minutes.
Another hero in a game full of them was Baylor’s Bernice Mosby, who finished with a game-high 26 points. In a news conference the day before the game, she spoke of how Yow touched her and inspired her and promised – regardless of the game’s outcome – to hug the beloved coach and tell her how much she’s meant to the game. Afterward, when players could no longer speak to the media, Baylor coach Kim Mulkey divulged that Mosby had earlier learned that her family’s Florida home had burned down and they’d lost everything.
Who would be more inspired? Ultimately, the Wolfpack, who lost an 11-point lead but managed to gather themselves as Shayla Fields did. The freshman knocked down a 3-pointer in the final minute of overtime after missing key free throws with 19 seconds left in regulation.
NC State will take on No. 1 Connecticut, a 94-70 winner over No. 9 Wisconsin-Green Bay.
The other No. 1 seeds didn’t have too much trouble dispatching their foes – Tennessee, 68-54 over No. 8 Pitt; Duke, 62-52 over No. 8 Temple; and North Carolina, 60-51 over No. 9 Notre Dame – although it took UNC and Duke until the final minutes to pull away. Again, it was the defense of scrappy, overachieving teams that made higher seeds struggle.