By Mechelle Voepel Special to ESPN.com RUSTON, La. -- Double overtime in the NCAA first round? Kansas guard Jennifer Jackson saw something wilder than that once.
And, yes, it popped into her mind when her Jayhawks were in their second OT vs. Vanderbilt in a Midwest Regional first-round game at Louisiana Tech on Saturday. "That four-overtime game?" Jackson said. "Yeah, it was a little reminiscent of that." The four-OT game she's referring to, of course, is Alabama's 121-120 victory over Duke in the NCAA second round in 1995. It wasn't on TV, so how does Jackson remember it? She was there. That was her sophomore year at Tuscaloosa Academy in Alabama, and when she was in high school she went to as many Crimson Tide games as she could. Ended up at Kansas, though, and Saturday she and the Jayhawks fell 71-69 in two overtimes. It was the sixth game this season Kansas lost by three points or less. Kansas had its chances, for sure. The Jayhawks had the ball at the end of regulation and set up a lob play for Lynn Pride. The pass was too far under the basket, though, and she didn't get a shot off. At the end of the second OT, the Jayhawks' Brooke Reves had a shot in the lane that wouldn't go down. And at the end of the third OT, the inbounds pass was tipped to Pride, who launched a 3-pointer that rattled the rim but didn't go in. Vanderbilt freshman Chantelle Anderson, despite picking up her fourth foul with 12:41 left in regulation, never fouled out and finished with a game-high 25 points. Now the Commodores, who missed the NCAA Tournament last season, will try to knock of top-seeded Louisiana Tech in Leon Barmore's final game in Thomas Assembly Center. For this, they fought through two overtimes? That's the NCAA Tournament for you.
Putbacks The questions really were never satisfactorily answered. They just don't, and we just do. At any rate, though, the three beautiful schools are now out of the tournament after UCSB's loss to Rice late Saturday.
"The kids just feel bad for Phylesha," coach Sherri Coale said of her team's only senior, the much-loved Whaley. "They wanted to do it for her. That bothers them even more than losing, I think." Whaley is such a nice kid, Coale said, that the 5-foot-10 forward never goes without saying "thank you" any time a manager hands her a water bottle. So you can imagine how happy the Sooners were Saturday. Not only did they beat BYU 86-81 in the first round, Whaley had 33 points and became the school's all-time scoring leader, eclipsing the great Molly McGuire. Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached via e-mail at mvoepel@kcstar.com. |
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