UW Knocked Off In Knoxville

NCAA women

Texas Tech wanted to stop Washington’s Rhonda Smith.

The Lady Raiders surprised themselves by how well that plan worked Thursday as they downed Washington 67-52 in Knoxville, Tenn., in the NCAA Mideast Regional semifinal.

Smith was held to six points. The Huskies’ leading scorer, Smith had 38 against Texas Tech in November’s Preseason NIT championship but fouled out this time with 5:55 left.

“First and foremost, we decided we weren’t going to let her touch the ball much,” Lady Raider Nikki Heath said of the plan to collapse onto Smith under the basket.

“It worked pretty well, I’d say.”

Texas Tech’s victory puts the No. 2 seed Lady Raiders (33-3) into the regional championship Saturday against top-seeded Tennessee (32-2).

The game will be the first meeting between the schools. Texas Tech lost to Alabama last year in the regional semifinals after winning the national title in 1993 with Sheryl Swoopes.

Tabitha Truesdale led Texas Tech’s attack with 18 points. The Lady Raiders outrebounded No. 3 seed Washington 48-34 and shot 47 percent from the floor.

Tech’s defensive pressure worked as Washington (28-6) shot 30 percent from the floor.

Texas Tech 67, Washington 52

WASHINGTON (28-6)

Wuschnig 3-5 0-0 6, Lewis 1-9 0-0 2, Smith 1-10 4-8 6, Foucade 1-7 0-0 3, Kelly 3-6 0-0 9, Savasta 3-6 0-0 7, Pelz 3-8 2-5 8, Niemela 0-1 0-0 0, Perkins 5-11 1-2 11, Hills 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-63 7-15 52.

TEXAS TECH (33-3)

Truesdale 7-12 4-6 18, White 4-7 4-6 12, Atkins 5-14 0-0 10, Heath 2-4 0-0 4, Johnson 3-6 1-2 8, Cockerell 0-0 0-0 0, Walker 0-0 0-0 0, Boles 1-2 0-0 2, Parker 1-2 2-4 4, Sumrall 0-1 2-2 2, Thomas 0-1 0-0 0, Thompson 2-4 3-5 7. Totals 25-53 16-25 67.

Halftime-Texas Tech 31, Washington 22. 3-Point goals- Washington 5-13 (Kelly 3-6, Foucade 1-3, Savasta 1-3, Niemela 0-1), Texas Tech 1-3 (Johnson 1-2, Sumrall 0-1). Fouled out- Smith, Perkins. Rebounds-Washington 34 (Perkins 6), Texas Tech 48 (White 10). Assists-Washington 8 (Kelly, Savasta, Pelz 2), Texas Tech 16 (Parker 6). Total fouls-Washington 24, Texas Tech 15. Technical foul-Washington bench. A-10,629.

Mideast Regional

Also at Knoxville, Dana Johnson scored 25 and top-seeded Tennessee dominated the boards to beat Western Kentucky 87-65.

Western Kentucky (28-4) ousted Tennessee from the NCAA Tournament in a Mideast semifinal three years ago, and threatened to do it again.

The Lady Toppers seemed unfazed by the partisan Tennessee crowd but could not overcome the Lady Vols’ 46-28 edge on the boards.

Tennessee’s (32-2) controlled the inside and enjoyed a big margin at the foul line, hitting 24 of 34, while the Lady Toppers made 8 of 10.

East Regional

At Storrs, Conn., Jen Rizzotti matched her season high with 24 points and Connecticut used a 20-0 run in the first half en route to a 87-56 thrashing of Alabama. The undefeated Huskies (32-0), the top seed in the East Region, will play in the final Saturday against No. 3 Virginia.

The game was close for about 5 minutes before Connecticut held fourth-seeded Alabama (22-9) scoreless for more than 7 minutes while building a 35-18 lead.

In the nightcap, Tora Suber’s layup with 3.7 seconds remaining lifted Virginia to a 63-62 victory over Louisiana Tech.

Suber’s basket capped an uphill struggle for Virginia, which trailed much of the game.

Vickie Johnson scored 21 points for Louisiana Tech (28-5) and Debra Williams added 12. For Virginia (27-4), Suber scored 15 and Wendy Palmer and Monique Foote had 13 each.

Midwest Regional

At Des Moines, Iowa, Georgia moved to within one victory of its first Final Four trip in 10 years, beating North Carolina State 98-79. Frett scored 18 of her 28 points in the second half and Henderson had 17 of her 21 in the final period as the 12th-ranked Lady Bulldogs (27-4) advanced to Saturday night’s regional championship game.

They did it by getting Henderson back into the game after some early foul trouble and by finally containing No. 24 North Carolina State’s outside shooting. The Wolfpack (21-10) made 6 of 8 3-point shots in the first half - four by Jennifer Howard - and led 50-49 early in the second half. In the nightcap, Colorado made sure George Washington didn’t pull off another miracle comeback.

Second-ranked Colorado bolted to an early 12-point lead and never let George Washington back in it, beating the No. 18 Colonials 77-61.

Led by Isabelle Fijalkowski’s 17 points, Colorado (30-2) won for the 25th straight time.

It will be the second regional championship game in three years for the Buffaloes, who lost to eventual national champion Texas Tech in the 1993 West Regional finals. Colorado has never been to the Final Four.

George Washington (26-6) had rallied from 17 points down in the final 5 minutes to beat Drake in a second-round game last Sunday. But that was with All-America point guard Shelley Scheetz running the show.

West Regional

At Los Angeles, Jannon Roland hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer and fourth-seeded Purdue stunned No. 1 seed Vanderbilt 67-66.

Lisa Ostrom missed the front end of a one-and-one with 8 seconds remaining and Purdue got the rebound. Jennifer Jacoby quickly brought the ball upcourt, passed to Roland in the right corner and sophomore forward made her shot as time expired.

She was immediately mobbed by her teammates and the Boilermakers danced off the floor in celebration. It was Purdue’s first win in four games against Vanderbilt, which defeated Purdue 72-52 last Nov. 25.

Purdue (24-7) had stayed in the game because of its outside shooting and ultimately advanced because of it. Jacoby’s 20 points led Purdue, with 15 of them coming on 3-pointers. Roland had 14 points.

Sheri Sam had 27 points for Vanderbilt (28-7).

In the other semifinal, Kristin Folkl scored 21 points and Anita Kaplan had 14 of her 16 points in the second half as No. 2 Stanford advanced by defeating defending national champion North Carolina 81-71.

Stanford (29-2) will play in the regional title game Saturday night against Purdue.

Charlotte Smith, whose buzzer-beating 3-pointer lifted North Carolina (30-5) to victory over Louisiana Tech in last year’s title game, was held to 13 points, six fewer than her average. She also had to play cautiously after picking up her fourth foul with 18:06 remaining.