March 9th, 2008

BET Liveblog - Session 3 (Quarterfinals, Part One)

4:20 p.m. — With UConn’s second team in, DePaul’s narrowed the scoreline considerably. It’s now 86-67, and UConn-Pittsburgh will be the first semifinal Tuesday night. That will do it for the Session 3 liveblog. Please do join us at 6:00 for the second half of our quarterfinal quadrupleheader, when it will be No. 2 Rutgers taking on No. 7 Louisville, followed by No. 3 West Virginia taking on No. 11 South Florida.

See you in 100 minutes. 

 

4:04 p.m. – Mercifully, this second half is going fairly quickly. We’ve got 7:57 remaining and it’s 78-48 UConn, following a couple of easy transition layups by Lorin Dixon and Renee Montgomery. DePaul is totally out of sorts and have just been bludgeoned by a UConn team that looks as focused as they did Monday against Rutgers.

This might be a trend to watch - even if you get UConn the first time (which only Rutgers, Syracuse and DePaul have done), they seem to learn from their mistakes and don’t repeat them. It’ll be interesting to see if this is also the case for a team that UConn destroyed the first time - keep this in mind for tomorrow’s matchup with Pittsburgh, who UConn beat, 90-64 in Pittsburgh.

Stay with us for the rest of this one, because really, what else do you have to do on a Sunday afternoon?

 

3:57 p.m. — And now it’s beginning to get a little out of hand. UConn leads, 68-43 after a 9-0 run, and the only thing the Huskies need to do in the remaining 11:41 is to make sure their players stay healthy.

Barring a miracle, UConn will be taking on Pitt, whose coach Agnes Berenato is standing right behind me shaking the hands of various supporters, much like she does the press. I bring this up again because it’s quite weird, in a good way.

It’s pretty clear that when the Huskies are on, there’s not a lot of teams that can even compete with them, much less beat them. For the last 8:46 of the first half and the first 8:19 of this one, UConn has been ‘on’, playing with that extra little bit of energy, or whatever you want to call it.

 

3:49 p.m. – And all order is restored to the world. Renee Montgomery’s hit a couple of 3s and is now in double figures with 10 points, while Moore also knocked in a 3 and a crazy-athletic offensive-rebound tip-in to give her 12 points. The Huskies have led by as many as 21, but right now DePaul has crept within 59-43 with 14:58 to play.

On their last two possessions, Missy Mitidero and Caprice Smith hit 3-pointers. I think UConn will take that every time, as long as Quigley (12 points, subsituted out at the last timeout) doesn’t get open looks.

Stay with us. 

 

3:28 p.m. — It’s halftime, and UConn is playing a bit more like the team you’d expect from the regular season. The Huskies lead, 44-29, despite the fact that two of their big three (Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery) have just 9 points total. Of course, Moore being a total rebound hog, she leads all players with 9. Charles has 7, and the Huskies are outrebounding DePaul 32-18 (including 15-5 on the offensive glass).

Tina Charles has 14, Charde Houston has 8, Ketia Swanier and Moore both have 7. For DePaul, it’s pretty much Quigley and Naughton and not much else. 

Other notable stats: UConn is just 2-for-8 from 3, but 6-for-9 from the 3-point line. In addition, after starting 5-for-24, the Huskies finished out the half at a 65 percent clip on 20 shots.

DePaul is 11-for-32 (1-for-9 on 3s), which is just the opposite of their game. No DePaul player has more than three rebounds.

Finally, to the young girl who made seven free throws during a halftime shooting game (she couldn’t have been older than 10 or so, and she defeated a fully-grown woman representing DePaul), congratulations: Geno Auriemma’s recruiting letter will be in the mail when you get home. She’s already as good a free throw shooter as Tina Charles, and she was about 4-foot-8, so it could happen.

 

3:10 p.m. — It looks like we’ve got a bit of a mixed Char Char today. The good: a couple of pretty driving layups off the glass, plus a nice offensive rebound putback. The bad: a bunch of turnovers/poor decisions, and two fouls.

UConn leads 32-23 at the 3:21 mark, as they’ve gone on a nice run. Renee Montgomery is absolutely shutting down Allie Quigley. Quigley has taken 3 uncontested shots, and she’s made them all. On nearly every other shot, Montgomery has harassed her and forced her to change her shot in mid-air. Just a great job thus far, and without Quigley, the burden of scoring has to go to Deirdre Naughton, who’s scored in double figures. DePaul will simply need to score more if they want to stay in this game.

 

2:58 p.m. — This might be one of those days for UConn. Allie Quigley is lighting it up, hitting a couple of long jumpers in the last minute or so. DePaul’s had a couple chances to take the lead, but DePaul seems to get a little impatient when they pull so close.

UConn leads, 19-17 at the 8:21 mark.

 

2:52 p.m. — This is a worst-case scenario for the UConn offense; jump shots aren’t falling, Charde Houston is missing layups and turning the ball over, Maya Moore’s only made field goal is a putback on the offensive glass.

The good news for UConn fans is that the Huskies lead, 12-7, as their defense is simply carrying them right now.

Ketia Swanier, who has been D’ing up Deirdre Naughton, just let her get loose for a moment and she just hit a 3 to pull DePaul within five, 11:51 to play in the first half.

 

2:43 p.m. — It must be something about Sunday, but we’ve got another sloppy, low-scoring game early here. UConn leads it, 6-2, but they haven’t looked good doing it. The Huskies, and Renee Montgomery in particular on Allie Quigley, are playing tenacious defense. The Blue Demons’ only field goal (they’re 1-for-9) came on a garbage putback by Erin Carney.

If UConn plays with intensity like this for 40 minutes on defense, they’ll be tough to beat by anyone. Of course, if Maya Moore shoots 0-for-4, as she is right now, it’ll be tough to outscore anyone.

Ketia Swanier drives for an uncontested layup right past the entire DePaul defense, and just like that it’s 10-2 UConn with 14:05 to go in the first. Timeout DePaul.

 

2:33 p.m. — And welcome back to the XL Center, for quarterfinal #2. This match-up features the No. 1 seed (and No. 1 in the country) UConn taking on No. 9 DePaul.

STARTING LINEUPS:

 

DePaul (20-10, 8-8), coached by Doug Bruno:

G Allie Quigley, G Missy Mitidero, G Deirdre Naughton, F Natasha Williams, C Erin Carney

 

UConn (29-1, 15-1), coached by Geno Auriemma:

G Ketia Swanier, G Renee Montgomery, F Maya Moore, F Kaili McLaren, C Tina Charles

 

This should be a good one. As I’m sure you remember, DePaul was 1.2 seconds away from pulling a stunner last Saturday in Chicago. Can they duplicate that feat? Allie Quigley is going to have to play a whale of a game to make it happen in front of a very partisan crowd in Hartford. The winner gets No. 5 seed Pittsburgh in tomorrow’s first semifinal. Stay with us.

 

2:00 p.m. — That’ll do it. Pittsburgh 64, Notre Dame 53 is your final. The Panthers will advance to tomorrow’s semifinal at 6 p.m., against the winner of UConn and DePaul.

I’ll be back in about 25 minutes with your regular UConn liveblog (see below). Starting lineups, witty observations, the works! Stay here. 

 

1:55 p.m. — It looks like it will be 1-and-done for the Fighting Irish, as Mallorie Winn’s hit a couple free throws here to give Pitt an 8-point lead with 0:35 to play.

Shame for Muffet McGraw, whose team has had a bad week (they lost to St. John’s Monday) since ascending to a top-10 ranking. Also, shame for the leprechaun, who dressed in that ridiculous suit for nothing.

Stay with us in case something crazy-go-nuts happens.

 

1:50 p.m. — Another tight game here in Hartford. Notre Dame got down as much as five, but rallied back to take the lead at 49-48. Mallorie Winn’s hit a few big shots, but Marcedes Walker’s layup with 1:36 left gave Pitt a 53-51 lead.

After a stop, Xenia Stewart hit the shot of the day, a 3-pointer to give the Panthers a 56-51 lead. Notre Dame couldn’t convert on its next possesssion and right now, Pitt is very much in the driver’s seat for pulling a minor upset over the fourth seed and the No. 9 team in the country.

Pitt will be inbounding the ball with 0:36 left, up by 5, and the next foul will put them at the line for 1-and-1.

Charel Allen has 17 for Notre Dame, but it’s been the Xenia and Marcedes Show for Pitt; they have 29 combined.

 

1:20 p.m. — You know, if they fixed the various internet troubles, I wouldn’t have to complain about them. Hello everyone, welcome to the XL Center and quarterfinal day here at the 2008 Big East women’s basketball tournament. We’ve got 4 very interesting matchups today, with some fantastic players and the cream of the crop playing today.

Our first match-up is currently in progress, and it’s #4 seed Notre Dame edging #5 Pittsburgh, 32-29 with 13:09 to play.

The story of the first half was Marcedes Walker. As she went, so went the Panthers. A couple stupid, early fouls (both on offense, including a totally blatant elbow on a rebound) led to her riding the pine. Pitt had nearly a dozen possessions that ended in turnovers or poor shots and decision making, and Notre Dame took leads of 14-2 and 17-6.

Pitt coach Agnes Berenato put Walker back in with two fouls, and she responded nicely, converting a pair of 3-point plays as part of an 11-0 Pitt run to even the score. Since then, it’s been almost literally basket-for-basket. Since the 17-17 tie, we’ve had nine lead changes, with the largest lead being three until a quick 7-0 Notre Dame run.

As I was writing this, Pitt immediately went on a 5-0 mini-run, and had a fast-break 2-on-1 opportunity to take the lead, but Mallorie Winn missed a chippy. Notre Dame leads, 35-34 with 11:08 to go.

Notre Dame’s band is very impressive, playing a bunch of songs you wouldn’t think would sound by a pep band. I’m talking about you, Cascada’s “Every Time We Touch” And you’ve gotta love that little leprechaun. He’s hilarious, like Nick Cannon.

Stay with us all day, as we’ll be here to cover all four games, including the impending showdown of a rematch between No. 1 UConn and No. 9 DePaul.

KM

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