March 8th, 2008

BET Liveblog - Session 2 (First Round - Part 2)

Sunday, 12:06 a.m. — Back on Floor 19 here in Hartford, to wrap up what was a highly entertaining first round of the 2008 Big East tournament.

First, here is Sunday’s schedule, with all games on ESPNU:

[1] Connecticut vs. [9] DePaul, 2 p.m.

[4] Notre Dame vs. [5] Pittsburgh, 12 p.m.

[3] West Virginia vs. [11] South Florida, 8 p.m.

[2] Rutgers vs. [7] Louisville, 6 p.m.

 

Next, here is a short list of Bests after Day One of the tournament; I’ll try to do this for the remaining three days and if anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to divulge:

Day 1 MVP: Angel McCoughtry, UL - the junior took over the Cards’ game against St. John’s, scoring 25 of Louisville’s 63 points. She was sidelined with foul trouble until the 8-minute mark of the second half. She came in with Louisville up 42-38. They ended up winning 63-47. McCoughtry scored most of her points in the last 8 minutes. Case closed, for me.

 

Team of Day 1: This one will be very easy to give out as we move towards the final rounds of the tournament. Today’s TotD is South Florida. They pulled out a gutty win over Syracuse in overtime, thanks to some great play by Jessica Lawson, Shantia Grace and Jazmine Sepulveda. They’ll be the tournament’s lone Cinderella hope, and they get to play the 2006 Cinderella, West Virginia, Sunday.

 

Play of Day 1: Take your pick - either the banked 3 by Shantia Grace to give USF a 2-point lead with 1:40 left or the banked 3 by Erica Morrow with :06 in regulation to tie it.

 

Pep Band Of Day 1: DePaul. Marquette’s berets were no match for their powerful, Rube Goldbergian chants.

 

Fan of Day 1: USF Bull Man. Obviously, and especially because his team won. Honorable mention (because she’s technically not a fan) to the fantastically talented USF baton twirler, who will return once more (at least).

 

Amusing Press Conference Moment of Day 1: Syracuse’s student beat writers getting their side story idea (on Syracuse’s switch to man-to-man defense in the second half) getting just destroyed by coach Quentin Hillsman. “We didn’t play man-to-man,” Hillsman said. Ouch, guys. I’ve been there.

Runner-up goes to Agnes Berenato, just for saying the phrase “Don’t be dissin’ me”. Mad props, Ms. Berenato. Mad props.

 

Finally, I’d like to welcome you to join us just before noon Sunday for another monstrous liveblog. I hope someone out there’s enjoying this, because this takes a lot more effort than you might think.

KM, signing off. Good night from Hartford, and don’t forget to set your clocks ahead tonight.

 

11:10 p.m. — Dadgum internet. Final score, in a shocker: South Florida 68, Syracuse 67 (OT).

Quite a fun little game, exactly what March Madness is all about. In case you didn’t see it, here’s the last few possessions:

Jess Lawson comes up with a clutch offensive rebound and putback to give USF the one-point lead with 1:40 left in OT. USF is able to hold the ball and run down the clock before Syracuse gets it back with under 30 to go. Tasha Harris rushes a 3-pointer with 8 seconds to play, misses it, and Portia Grant comes up with the rebound and gets fouled.

Grant misses the front end of a 1-and-1, Syracuse gets the rebound and calls timeout with 5.2 seconds left. They inbound to Chandrea Jones, who dribbles to halfcourt before bouncing the ball off her leg. She recovers, but is forced to hoist a 45-footer as time expires. It looked like had a chance, but bounced off the win, giving the No. 11 seeded Bulls the upset win.

Whew. South Florida advances to play West Virginia Sunday at 8 p.m.

Back, after I get some packing done, with a bit of a wrap-up of an entertaining first round here in Hartford.

 

10:20 p.m. — So here’s an amazing sequence - Sepulveda misses 2 FTs, Syracuse turns the ball over, Grace makes one of 2, putting USF up, 63-60 with 27 seconds left. Syracuse for some reason holds the ball for a 3. Erica Morrow, Syracuse’s best shooter, gets about an inch of space, takes a 3 and banks it off the glass. I’ve never seen two banked 3-pointers within the span of a minute like that, before.

South Florida fails to convert on their final possession and we are headed for five more minutes. Bonus basketball here at the XL Center, tied at 63-63.

 

10:14 p.m. — Shantia Grace hits an absolutely ridiculous banked 3-pointer from the right side of the key. Amazingly, USF takes its first lead (62-60) since it was 6-5 about three minutes in. Syracuse turns it over on their next possession and Jazmine Sepulveda is fouled. She’ll go to the line for 2 with 1:21 remaining, with USF up by 2 and primed to pull a huge upset. 

 

10:10 p.m. — Syracuse has been holding the Bulls at bay for most of the last 10 minutes, expanding their lead to as much as 10 (51-41 with 11:11 left). However, once USF began playing more disciplined offense - especially Shantia Grace (21 pts, 9 ast) - they got some easy buckets. Erica Morrow’s been the big gun for Syracuse, hitting big shots every time the Bulls got close, but she hasn’t had any opportunity to shoot in the Orange’s last few possessions.

Syracuse leads, 60-57, with 3:04 remaining.

Keep it here, updates should be coming more frequently as we get down the stretch.

 

9:46 p.m. — Well, how about that: South Florida pulled within a couple, going on a 10-0 run fueled by the shooting of Grace and Jazmine Sepulveda. But a couple of poor defensive plays by the Bulls led to a wide-open 3 by Erica Morrow and a wide-open and-one layup for Fantasia Goodwin. It’s 42-35 Syracuse with 14:00 left, and things are getting a bit more interesting. Even the Bull Man is standing up.

 

9:27 p.m. – Syracuse leads 33-23 at halftime, despite shooting 11-for-30. It could have something to do with 8 offensive rebounds and a +12 rebounding margin. The Bulls simply don’t have enough offensive firepower outside of Grace (9 points), who has been largely held to being a long jumpshooter.

The Orange have looked rather sloppy at points, throwing wild passes over everyone’s head and generally seeming a little rusty/nervous/whatever you want to call it. Still, they’ve got this game well in hand, as South Florida has zero offensive rebounds and is lacking anything resembling a scoring threat outside of Grace. The Orange are bigger, more athletic, and they seem hungry after two years of no postseason play.

You can tell the media is getting tired when even the people who are actually writing about this game for a newspaper are getting a bite to eat.

I’m not complaining, however. We are 20 minutes away from narrowing this field down to, in my opinion,  the strongest quarterfinal field in any conference tournament I’ve ever seen. Eight teams that are either locks or extremely likely to be NCAA-bound; three ranked in the top 10 (2 in the top 4) and 7 teams that have been ranked at some point this season.

The winner of this particular game gets No. 3 West Virginia in Sunday’s nightcap.

Back during the second half with more.

8:54 p.m. — Syracuse out to an early 16-9 lead over the underdog Bulls with 11:14. This is my first opportunity to see Syracuse, and I’m fairly impressed. They’re not as careful with the ball as one might want, and that’s likely why they lost a couple games to lesser teams down the stretch. But they’ve played really solid defense and smart, patient offense.

South Florida pretty much lives and dies by Shantia Grace, as we’re learning; She’s got a couple of 3-pointers and USF doesn’t seem able to do much against a tight Syracuse defense.

Otto the Orange is, predictably, extremely punchable tonight. USF wins the mid-game entertainment with a fantastic baton twirler. I guess such is life when you live in a state where it’s 75 degrees in February. God, I love Florida.

Back around halftime.

 

7:59 p.m. — Louisville has pretty much put this away, as expected, because Angel McCoughtry took the game over after re-entering. She has scored 15 points in just about 6 minutes and extended the Cards’ lead to 59-45. There’s just 1:38 remaining, and it looks like Louisville will get to take on Rutgers tomorrow night at 6:00.

 For St. John’s, Kia Wright will play her final game tonight. The former UConn recruit has been out of control driving into the lane all night, and has looked frustrated at times, including what looked to be a cheap, hard foul on McCaughtry with 3:30 left.

That should wrap it up for the third game of today’s action, but you’ll want to keep it here for the fourth and final game of the opening round - No. 6 Syracuse returns to the Big East tournament for the first time since 2005 when they take on No. 11 South Florida.

Stay with us. 

 

7:37 p.m. — Louisville’s developed a little bit of a lead, at 40-35 with 8:55 to go, almost all of it without Angel McCoughtry, who has just re-entered the game after picking up her third foul early in the second half.

Louisville’s starting to heat up from the field, but St. John’s is already in the bonus and is staying close.

You’ll also want to stay close if you can’t see the game.

 

7:00 p.m. — Not one for the archives tonight - St. John’s trails Louisville, 23-21 at halftime. Monique McLean leads all scorers with 8. St. John’s is 6-for-22; Louisville is 9-for-25.

Angel McCoughtry sat the last 9 minutes or so with foul trouble. The result is a lot of forced shots and missed 3s (1-for-7) for the Cards.

The winner gets No. 2 Rutgers, who must be licking their chops at potentially holding one of these two teams scoreless tomorrow night.

St. John’s is going to have to contain McCoughtry and keep her (and the rest of the 30-percent 3-pt shooting Cards) shooting jumpshots to stay within sight. Make sure you’re here to get the latest.

 

6:26 p.m. - Ugly game in the early going. Lots of sloppy play, turnovers and missed shots. Louisville leads it 12-6 with 11:58 to play, behind four points each by Candyce Bingham, Chauntise Wright and Angel McCoughtry.

St. John’s has looked pretty rough on offense in the early going, as Louisville is applying pressure and is the more athletic team. Monique McLean has made the only field goal for St. John’s, a layup; the Red Storm have 5 free throws to round out there scoring.

More later.

 

5:55 p.m. - Welcome back everyone, hope you’re enjoying your Saturday. There’s upsets all around the country right now, including the UCLA men trailing Cal, the Maryland women getting hammered in the ACC semifinals against Duke and Pat Summitt falling narrowly to a raccoon earlier this week.

The St. John’s women will try to continue that string with an upset over No. 7 seed Louisville in our next match-up here at the XL Center. The winner will take on the Mountaineers of West Virginia, but to say that St. John’s is an underdog would be an understatement.

The undermanned Red Storm are 16-13, with an impressive win over Notre Dame to their credit. But they’ve lost to Big East minnows Georgetown and Villanova, as well as headscratching losses to Vermont, UAB and Hartford.

In these two teams’ first meeting, Louisville’s Angel McCoughtry scored 26 and Candyce Bingham scored 25. As usual, tonight should be the McCoughtry show. The First-Teamer averages 23 points per game and was one of the favorites to win Big East Player of the Year.

With the UConn interest done for the day (Husky fans know their team will be playing DePaul tomorrow), the crowd seems to have thinned considerably for the night session - one of the bad things about holding the tournament in a giant arena in Hartford. But at least the USF Bull Hat Guy is here for our entertainment. 

No matter who you’re rooting for, stay with us all night, as we have two more games to go here in the first round of the Big East tournament.

KM

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