NCAA WOMEN Rutgers 53 Texas Tech 42 NORMAL, Ill. – Before last night’s Midwest Regional semifinal, Rutgers’ forward Shawnetta Stewart said she wanted a close game. She will have to wait.
Rutgers lived up to its reputation as one of the country’s top defensive teams, using a swarming matchup zone to completely stifle and humiliate No. 2 seed Texas Tech, 53-42, to advance to the regional final tomorrow night, where it will face Purdue. The top-seeded Boilermakers beat North Carolina 82-59 in the other semifinal last night at Redbird Arena at Illinois State.
Most of the talk before the Rutgers-Texas Tech matchup centered around both squads’ stingy defenses, but no one could have predicted what happened during the contest’s first half. After decisive victories over Dartmouth and Arizona in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, last night’s game figured to give Stewart her wish. But it wasn’t to be.
The game wasn’t nearly as close as the score would indicate, as the Scarlet Knights led by close to 20 points for much of the second half.
The No. 3 seeded Scarlet Knights (29-5) scored the game’s first 11 points and held Texas Tech (30-4) scoreless for an astonishing 8:57. They were tenacious all over the floor, never letting Texas Tech get an open shot.
“I think we caught them by surprise,” guard Tasha Pointer said. “We have the best defense in the country. That’s almost all [head coach C. Vivian Stringer] talks about. If you don’t play defense, you don’t play.”
In addition to Rutgers’ exemplary defense, the drought was the product of a complete offensive breakdown by the Lady Raiders.
Texas Tech scored just two points in the opening 12:03 and the Scarlet Knights led 25-11 at halftime, a score that befits a contest featuring the two-handed set shot rather than an NCAA Tournament regional semifinal. The 11 points tied a tournament record for futility in a half.
Tomora Young was Rutgers’ leading scorer with 15 points.
With the victory, Rutgers advanced to the Elite Eight for the third time and the first since 1987. And Stringer became the first women’s coach ever to lead three different schools that far into the tournament, after guiding Cheyney State and Iowa there.
Despite that lineage, it shouldn’t have been so easy.
One of the questions that Rutgers was faced with last night was how to stop Tech forward Angie Braziel, who averaged 20.7 points per game. Tammy Sutton-Brown, Rutgers’ tough center, has been plagued by a stress fracture in her left foot throughout the season and her minutes have been limited. But Linda Miles effectively doubled down on her and the duo held Braziel without a field goal for over 24 minutes and just six points for the game.
Throughout the week, both Stringer and her players spoke about the Lady Raiders’ apparent quickness, both offensively and defensively. And while they proved tough on defense, Rutgers’ concerns about its opponents were unfounded.
‘We weren’t surprised,” Miles said of how her team limited Tech. “Our coaching staff had us well-prepared and there was nothing they could do.”
The Lady Raiders had proved to be prolific throughout the season from both inside and outside. Last night, they were neither.
But Stringer seemed unmoved by Rutgers’ success.
‘Why should we?” Stringer said when asked why she wasn’t celebrating. “We’re not done yet.”
And one way away from the Final Four, those miles might just be the ones between Normal and San Jose.
In the first game, Ukari Figgs led Purdue (31-1) with 24 points.