Toledo, OH – Toledo continued its run
through the Women’s National Invitation Tournament on Tuesday evening, defeating
the Alabama Crimson Tide, 74-59, in front of 3,740 incredibly crazy fans, the
second largest crowd of the season.
And following the hard-earned
win, Tricia Cullop and the team were given the welcome news: the Rockets would
be hosting a quarter-final game on Sunday at 2:00 pm. “We get to play at Savage
[Arena] again,” said senior co-captain Jessica Williams. “It’s amazing to be a
senior and continue on in post-season play. Our team comes in every day just as
focused, regardless of who we play. We want to come out here every evening and
try to play as hard as we can for our fans. We didn’t want this to be our last
game.”
The Tide rolled into Toledo on the heels
of a 72-70 road win over Northwestern, a team that defeated the Rockets, 70-60
back in December at the Evanston, IL campus. Alabama employed a smothering
full-court press against the taller Wildcats, hounding them into 24 turnovers
that led to 27 points and, ultimately, the win. So it only made sense for the
Rockets to think that they would get a dose of that same press. UA did employ
the press for most of the game, but that pressure would not produce the same
results against the Midnight Blue and Gold.
The first 20 minutes of the game saw six
ties as the teams traded baskets without either opponent gaining much of an
advantage. UT was down 30-29 when Naama Shafir was fouled with 14 seconds to
play. The junior guard promptly converted both ends of a one-and-one opportunity
to give her team a slim one-point advantage going into intermission.
Alabama out-shot Toledo from the floor in
the opening stanza, making four more field goals than the Rockets but the home
team had an edge in three-point shooting, making 4-of-12 to the Tide’s 2-of-6.
Toledo was also on fire from the charity stripe canning 9-of-10 opportunities.
Williams had 10 points, including a trio of triples, to lead both teams at the
break.
Williams was fouled making a layup to
start the second half and promptly completed the traditional three-point play to
put Toledo on top, 34-30. Shafir then converted another pair of free throws
before going to the hoop with one of her acrobatic layups, to make it an
eight-point game
Cold shooting befell the Rockets for about
four minutes midway through the second period allowing Alabama to creep within
two points, 49-47, at the 9:47 mark. But just when it looked like the visitors
from the Southeast Conference were poised to make a serious run, junior Haylie
Linn came to the rescue, sandwiching a pair of timely treys around an Andola
Dortch basket to return the lead to eight points, 57-49.
Alabama made one final stab at Toledo,
cutting the margin to 59-56 with 4:17 to play, before UT applied the
coup-de-grace with a game ending 15-3 run, that produced another
huge post-season win.
Toledo has played very well as a team
during its WNIT run, but Tuesday’s victory was truly a team win. Five Rockets,
topped by Shafir’s game-high 19 points, reached double figures. Williams had 13
points while Melissa Goodall, Dortch, and Linn each had 10 points,
Dortch, the red-shirt freshman who plays
nothing like a freshman, just missed a double-double as she crashed the boards
with her willowy 5-7 frame to snag nine rebounds. She also had four assists and
a steal in 36 minutes of playing time.
Freshman forward Kaneisha Horn had 11
points to lead Alabama in scoring.
Toledo shot a sparkling 14-of-25 (56%) in
the second half and finished the game shooting 42.4%. The winners also connected
on 8-of-24 three-point shots and converted 20-of-26 free throws. Conversely,
Alabama was just 4-of-13 from the charity stripe and missed on the front end of
a number of one-and-one opportunities.
After committing nine turnovers in the
first half, UT settled down and recorded just six miscues after intermission.
The Rockets also finished the evening with a slim advantage on the boards,
38-36.
“I'm very proud of our players for playing
such unselfish basketball today,” said Cullop in her post-game statement to the
media. “There are a few things that I told the team absolutely had to happen if
we were going to win: to keep our turnovers under 20, to
shoot a good percentage from the free throw line, and to out rebound them. Those
were the keys and we did all three. That’s one of the quickest presses
[Alabama’s pressure] that we've faced: they've got great quickness, athleticism,
and length. But we really swung the ball against their pressure and we began to
wear them down. It was just a tremendous team effort.”
With each victory, the sting and
disappointment of not being selected for the NCAA Tournament diminishes. The
players have rallied around each other and the ladies are probably playing their
best basketball of the season. Entering Tuesday’s contest Toledo was one of only
32 teams that were still playing basketball at this late date, so whether it’s
the NCAA or the WNIT, it’s a very select group that continues to practice for
the next game.
Toledo is now 3-0 at home against SEC
opponents and the 26-win total the team has recorded this year is one shy of the
27 wins posted by the 1996-97 team.
The Toledo fans also set a record of sorts
with the longest welcoming tunnel since the tradition began a number of years
ago. Tuesday’s tunnel ran its usual course on the sidelines then, because of the
multitude of participants, snaked under the north basket and out onto the court
where it made several ninety-degree turns before opening up almost at mid-court.
And yes, that was the football team, led by Head Coach Tim Beckman, out there on
the court adding their numbers to the mass of humanity.
The Toledo players and the fans teamed up
to create an amazing big-time college atmosphere in Savage Arena on Tuesday, the
likes of which hasn't been seen locally for many a moon.
The Rockets now await the winner of the
Eastern Michigan/Syracuse game that will be played this Thursday at Syracuse. If
Eastern Michigan can get the victory, an all-MAC quarterfinal game would be
quite an accomplishment for the conference.
This is really getting interesting.