SEC Women's Basketball NCAA Action - 3/18

Monday, March 18, 2002
 
  • Complete 2002 NCAA Women's Tournament Bracket (32K PDF)

    Vanderbilt 61, Arizona State 35

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Zuzi Klimesova scored 15 points and Chantelle Anderson added 14 as top-seeded Vanderbilt beat Arizona State 61-35 Monday night in the second round of the Midwest Regional, the Commodores' seventh straight victory and 500th in school history.

    The Commodores (29-6) improved to 14-0 in NCAA tournament games at Memorial Gym and 19-5 through the first two rounds.

    They earned their second straight trip to the regional semifinals and 10th in 15 tournament appearances. Vanderbilt will play fourth-seeded North Carolina, a 72-69 winner over Minnesota, in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday.

    Ninth-seeded Arizona State (25-9) had a chance at the best season in school history with a victory that would have put the Sun Devils into the regional semifinals for the first time since 1983.

    With the Pac-10 Conference's stingiest scoring defense, they felt they could slow down the team tied with Connecticut for the nation's best shooting team, men's or women's. The Sun Devils weren't worried about falling behind, not after having to rally for victory in each of their previous four games.

    The Commodores never gave them a chance.

    Vanderbilt dominated the Sun Devils, hitting 51 percent (24-of-47) from the floor compared to 15-of-52 (28 percent). The Commodores also controlled the boards with a 36-24 edge on rebounds.

    Anderson scored the first basket of the game, and Vanderbilt never looked back as it scored 12 of the first 14 points. Each of the Commodores' starters had scored a little more than seven minutes into the game, and they hit 52 percent of their shots in leading 32-15 at halftime.

    Jillian Danker added 13 for Vanderbilt, and Ashley McElhiney had 12.

    Arizona State missed four of its first five shots and hit only a season-low 6-of-24 for the first half. The Sun Devils went the final 4:10 of the half without scoring.

    By the time Betsy Boardman ended the scoreless streak with a bucket at 16:28, Arizona State trailed 36-17. That was as close as the Sun Devils would get as Vandy pushed the lead to as much as 52-27 on a bucket by Danker with 5:11 to go.

    Amanda Levens, the Sun Devils' leading scorer, had led their recent comebacks _ but not Monday night. She had only two points in the first half and finished with just six. Melody Johnson had a team-high 13 points, and Cion Carvalho, who had a career-high 24 points in beating Wisconsin, had two.


    South Carolina 75, Cincinnati 56

    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Tatyana Troina scored eight of her 14 points during a 25-0 second half run as No. 3 South Carolina beat Cincinnati 75-56 Monday night in the second round of the NCAA East Regional.

    Troina started the run with a rare five-point play. She buried a 3-pointer that put the Lady Gamecocks (24-6) ahead 43-41 with 11:42 left. A foul was called off the ball, and Troina took the inbound pass and hit a baseline jumper.

    By the time K.B. Sharp hit a jumper to end the run with 4:08 left, the sixth-seeded Bearcats (27-5) trailed 65-43.

    During the eight-minute run, Cincinnati missed nine shots, turned the ball over four times and had a technical called on a player on the bench. The Lady Bearcats shot just 32.3 percent (20-of-62) in the game and had 18 turnovers.

    The win advances South Carolina to the round of 16 for the first time since 1990. The Lady Gamecocks will take on seventh-seeded Drake on Saturday in Raleigh, N.C.

    South Carolina's Teresa Geter led all scorers with 21 points, including hitting eight free throws in a row during the 25-0 run. She added 10 rebounds. Shaunzinski Gortman had 19 points for the Lady Gamecocks.

    Sharp and Valerie King led Cincinnati with 13 points apiece. But King shot just 4-of-18 from the field and 1-of-7 on 3-pointers.

    Both teams started the game hot, and Sharp's back-to-back 3-pointers put Cincinnati ahead 13-8 with 15:24 to go in the first half.

    Then the shooting cooled and the turnovers started to mount. South Carolina led 27-24 at the break.