The 8-times Women’s NCAA Tournament Champions, the Tennessee Lady Volunteers were beaten by the No.12 seeded Ball State 71-55 this past Sunday. This triumph over the Lady Vols was historical for Ball State given that they upset the current NCAA champion and the most successful team in women’s basketball history. Defeating Tennessee was more than a dream for Ball State, since this is also their first appearance at the NCAA tournament in school’s history. The Cardinals were expecting to battle during the whole game but they never imagine that their victory will end with a lead of 16 points.
The Cardinals and the Lady Vols were really balanced at the beginning of the game, although Ball State was persistent and ended at the halftime with a lead of one point 28-29. However, in the second half, things got completely in favor of the Cardinals who took a lead of three points with a three-pointer of Emily Maggert in the first six minutes of the second half, putting Ball State up 38-35. Tennessee’s usual fighter and confident attitude was not there; they were shooting poorly from the three point line, connecting just 2-of-18 attempts and committing 16 turnovers in the whole game. All these poor statistics getting worse with the injury of Tennessee post player Kelley Cain let the Lady Vols to their first ever defeat in a first round of the NCAA tournament, getting comfortably beaten by the Cardinals 71-55.
The best scorers for the Cardinals were Porchia Green with 23 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists, Audrey McDonald with 18 points and Kiley Jarrett with 14 points. For the Lady Vols the best scorers were Shekinna Stricklen with 17 points, Angie Bjorklund with 14 points and injured Kelley Cain with 10 points.
This exit of Tennessee is the worst in school’s history and was the end of the most awful season for Coach Pat Summitt and her Lady Vols team. In 42 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, the Lady Vols never exited that early and least against a no ranking team, which means that this is the biggest upset in the NCAA Women’s basketball history. However, it has to be mentioned that this is also the first time in 35 years of her coaching career that Pat Summitt counted with just one starter from last year and 7 freshmen; making it the youngest team she has ever had in Tennessee, which explains also the poor season of her Lady Vols. As well, Summitt herself expressed during the season that this was the team with the lowest energy that she’d ever had in her career.
"I thought we were tentative, maybe uptight. But you have to give credit where credit is due and that's to the Ball State basketball team. They had a lot more toughness. They beat us to loose balls. They made shots. Obviously we have been very fortunate at Tennessee to have advanced to the Sweet 16 and this is the first time we haven't done that," stated Coach Pat Summitt.
With this historical defeat and the not so good record of 22-11, Coach Pat Summitt expects to see the attitude that her team will take at the offseason. On the other hand, the Ball State Cardinals hope to win at the second round of the NCAA Tournament against the fourth seeded Iowa State on Tuesday March 24th.
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