TAMPA, Fla. -- By most accounts, Stanford was the favorite coming into Tuesday night's NCAA Tournament Final against defending champion Tennessee. The Cardinal had the momentum, the NCAA's longest active win streak and Candice Wiggins.
But they ran into the brick wall of Tennessee tradition and a ferocious defense that almost immediately walloped the wind out of Stanford. Tennessee pressed and pressed and pressed some more, immediately flustering Stanford. It broke up their triangle offense and forced turnovers. Stanford's 25 turnovers was the most for the Cardinal in two-and-a-half seasons.
Surprisingly, the phenomenal Candace Parker did not undo Stanford for the Vols' 64-48 win. Sure, she eventually racked up a game-high 17 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals and her second Most Outstanding Player award, but she got off to a slow, un-Candace-like start in the first half.
It was the two Lady Vol seniors from New York City, jackrabbit point guard Shannon Bobbitt and center Nicky Anosike, who jumped on Stanford and kept on pounding, before Parker joined them in the second half when the damage already had been done. Anosike and Bobbitt were named to the All-Tournament Team along with Parker.
Anosike forced 6 steals, scored 12 points and reined in 8 rebounds. She averages 8.8 points and 1.7 steals a game. Anosike's performance was notable for her taking -- and making -- jumpers from the free-throw line but more so for her determined defense, at the top of the press, which pushed Stanford's two formidible posts away from their comfort zone.
"I wasn't going home without a championship," Anosike, of Staten Island, said after the game. "If we lost, I was going to live here, because I wasn't going back home. No one was going to deny me a national championship. I did whatever I needed to do to make sure we won."
Parker gave props to the 6-4 center who whispered some motivational words in the star's ear -- which they wouldn't share -- right before Parker went on her offensive tear in the second half.
"She came out ready to play, and she was the reason we won the national championship, because we looked in her eyes and we knew we weren't going to lose after that," said Parker, the Naismith and Associated Press Player of the Year.
Coming up big in the biggest game of the year is nothing new for Anosike. She hauled in 16 rebounds in last year's national championship.
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, after her 983rd career win, called Anosike the team's inspirational leader.
"I think this game inspired her," Summitt said. "She's one of the most fierce competitors I've ever coached.
"She's going to be very successful in life, because that's who she is."
Who Bobbitt is, is the scrappy, undersized point guard who likes the shake-n-bake as much as the big three from the corner. Her ankle-breaking antics straight from Rucker Park sometimes get her the Pat-ented death stare from Summitt, but the coach said Tuesday night there's no way she'd have won these past two national titles without Bobbitt and the other JuCo transfer, Alberta Auguste. Bobbitt made three threes and hounded Stanford guards JJ Hones and fellow NYer Rosalyn Gold-Onwude into bad passes and a rushed offense. Bobbitt, the smallest player in the Final Four, at 5-2, has a game that's bigger.
"She's so tough-minded," Summitt said. "She thinks she's about 6-5 the way she plays."
And now Bobbitt, Anosike and the Vols have a towering achievement: a second straight national championship.