Second-Half Rutgers Charge Derailed at Tennessee
Feb 11 | Women's Basketball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Senior Essence Carson (Paterson, N.J.) drilled a jumper to put the No. 5/7 Rutgers women's basketball team up one with 23 seconds remaining, but two free-throws from Tennessee forward Nicky Anosike with 0.2 seconds remaining in the game gave the Lady Vols a 59-58 victory Monday evening. The game, a rematch of last year's national championship, was played in front of 17,690 fans at the Thompson-Boling Arena.
Rutgers (19-4), who outscored No. 1/2 Tennessee, 35-25 in the second half, was led by sophomore guard Epiphanny Prince (Brooklyn, N.Y.) who tallied a team-high 21 points. Carson matched her season-high with 18 points, while senior guard Matee Ajavon (Newark, N.J.) added nine points, snapping her double-digit scoring streak at 11 games.
After a potent second-half charge in which the Scarlet Knights outscored the Lady Vols 33-17, RU led by five, 56-51, with 1:39 remaining in the game. However, just 35 seconds later, Tennessee (22-1) regained the lead with consecutive three-point buckets from Shannon Bobbitt and Angie Bjorklund.
Down by one with 23 seconds remaining, Carson calmly knocked down a 19-foot jumper to give RU the lead back, 58-57. After a Tennessee timeout, the Lady Vols managed to get shots off from both Bobbitt and All-American Candace Parker - with four seconds left - before Anosike came down with the offensive rebound and was fouled with what appeared to be 0.2 seconds showing on the clock.
After a discussion, the referees used the video replay system and determined that Anosike was fouled with the clock having not yet expired, although it appeared the clock was held at two-tenths of a second for nearly a full second. Anosike, who was 0-7 from the floor, made both free-throws to seal the controversial win for Tennessee.
Prince, the current BIG EAST Player of the Week, scored 14 of her 21 points in the second half to lead RU's second half run. The Scarlet Knights cut an 11-point halftime deficit down to one just four minutes into the second stanza. Tennessee did not record its first points until the 13:46 mark of the second half - missing its first eight shot attempts of the half - as Rutgers came out of the intermission on a 10-0 run.
Parker posted a game-high 27 points and added 10 rebounds to lead Tennessee, which has won 12 consecutive games. The Lady Vols committed only eight turnovers, seven of which came in the second half.
In the first half, Carson kept the game close early as the senior scored five consecutive points to pull Rutgers to within one, 9-8, at the 15:16 mark. Tennessee would seize control quickly though as the Lady Vols went on an 8-0 spurt to take a 17-8 advantage with 13:44 to go in the half.
Poor RU shooting would allow Tennessee to extend the lead to 11 at the half as the Scarlet Knights scored only two points in the final six minutes of the stanza. The 11-point deficit was RU's largest of the season and the most since the Scarlet Knights trailed Tennessee by 16 in the national championship game on April 3, 2007.
Rutgers, which boasts the nation's third best scoring defense (50.8 ppg), held Tennessee to its worst scoring output of the season and 21.5 points under its scoring average.
The Scarlet Knights will return to BIG EAST play Saturday as RU travels to Tampa, Fla. - the site of the 2008 Final Four - to take on South Florida. The game is set to tip at 7 p.m. at the Sun Dome.
POSTGAME QUOTES
RUTGERS HEAD COACH C. VIVIAN STRINGER
(Opening Comments) Great game wasn't it? I hope you all enjoyed it. Very good. Down to the last second.
(On the game) It was a great game with two ranked teams in a great atmosphere for a great cause for all the right reasons. It's just unfortunate that those kinds of things happen. I'll probably write a book on all that. I'm getting used to it by now, but we'll learn from it. It doesn't take away from a great Tennessee team and a great coach and a great everything.
(On the explanation she received from the officials) "They told me that they reviewed it and that there were 0.2 seconds left when the foul occurred. I spoke to both officials and it seems like one was telling me about what the other one had said. In other words, that's what he said he saw, so what did you see. I asked them if I could see and of course that was not allowed. It's too bad. They said that in that circumstance they could not let me see the clock. I might have been able to help them see something that they needed to see."
(On whether she asked the officials about the clock) "Yes. They said everything was fine. The foul was called before and they had looked at the clock on the monitor and the foul was called before time went off the clock. So now we've got bad eyes too. I think that (Rutgers SID) Stacey (Brann) said that they looked at it in slow motion. Whether you look at something in slow motion or real time, it seems to me that we ought to have some professional education about how you do that. In other words, it seemed to me that they looked at it in slow motion, so they somehow missed it in real time."
(On the final outcome of the game) "The two teams are too good for that. It's not Pat's (Summitt) fault and it's not Tennessee's fault, unfortunately. Probably what I would have to say about that situation is that I just want to be able to coach my team in the next couple days. It has nothing to do with Tennessee and it has nothing to do with those players and those coaches. Unfortunately, that is human error. I just happen to be on the end of human error too many times with too many erasers at the end of my name and I'm so sorry, because these young women deserve better. The clock froze."
"The game did not deserve this. Tennessee didn't deserve this. Pat didn't deserve this. Those great players didn't deserve this and neither did my great team deserve this. It is what it is."
(On whether she saw contact on the final play) "If Kia fouled her, I would have had to see the shooter. I grabbed my assistant because I was sure we had won, and then while she had me thrust in the air, she said, 'Oh, wait a minute.' And then that's when we were told that there was a human involvement."
(On thinking she had won the game) "We really thought we had won. That's an interesting emotion. Being picked up and before you can even come down, you've been tapped and 'hello.' That's a cruel joke they're playing down here. That's an amazing thing to go from the extreme high to the extreme low.
RUTGERS GUARD/FORWARD ESSENCE CARSON
(On the vantage point on the final play) "I myself was watching the clock the whole time. My position on the floor had me under the basket, had me facing the basket. It's just unbelievable how anyone can take that many shots in that amount of time and still have time left on the clock. It bothers me."
(On the second-half comeback) "We played our basketball. We played defense first. We made them take a lot of last second shots. We played pretty good defense. They shot 29 percent from the field for the entire game. We made sure that this time we boxed out and tried to make it one-and-done."
TENNESSEE HEAD COACH PAT SUMMITT
(opening remarks): "I'm not sure how we managed to win. Statistically, what I was proud of, was that we were able to keep ourselves in the game, even though midway through the second half we were 1-of-15 from the floor. You're not going to win many games shooting that way unless you take care of the ball. We kept our turnovers down. Nicky Anosike struggled all night, but I told (assistant coach) Dean (Lockwood) at the end of the game that I thought she could help us on defense specifically. And then she made both of those free throws. Rutgers did a tremendous job. They are so good off the dribble and in their halfcourt offense. Their shot selection was more impressive than ours was tonight."
(on Tennessee's shooting): "Rutgers is a great defensive team. Shannon (Bobbitt) was 1-of-9, Alexis (Hornbuckle) was 1-of-4, and Alberta (Auguste) was 0-of-4. Their defense brought the pressure and we got overanxious offensively. I kept saying, "We've got to get the ball inside. We had players who were trying to do too much. Those three specifically were trying to do too much. Shannon was trying to do too much offensively, and I think she has some friends on the Rutgers team with whom she has had one-on-one battles."
(on Rutgers' defense): "Rutgers extended their defense. They did a great job in the passing lanes. They are like they've always been. (Rutgers head coach) Vivian (Stringer) always does a great job on defense. We were fortunate to win. I'm just proud we found a way to win."
(on Nicky Anosike): "Nicky was not pleased with her offensive game. We gave her a chance to step up, and she made the plays to win. She has a tremendous competitive spirit and had composure at the line tonight. I was happy for her."
(on game overall): "We will learn from it. We found a way to win. They outplayed us in the second half. We shouldn't go back to our apartments and dorms and think we are the best team in the country. We've got a lot of growing to do. Rutgers is one of the best teams we've played."
(on Shannon Bobbitt's technical): "I think they know each other. I'm not happy with what she did. She has to stay within herself. You can't have your point guard doing what she did."
(on Candace Parker): "We've got to get the ball inside to Candace. We are so much more effective when she can get paint points. We have to have her and she has to get points in the paint, not on the perimeter."
(on the three-pointers by Shannon Bobbitt and Angie Bjorklund late in the game): "They were huge threes. Shannon had not made a shot, but she was aggressive and confident and so was Angie. They got good looks."
(on Rutgers not scoring early in the game): "I don't specifically think we got complacent on defense. We should try to capitalize on those situations. Rutgers was committed to their sets, and we let the ball get reversed. They forced us to maintain intensity on defense."
