March 30, 2004
| NCAA Tournament: Elite Eight |
By JEFF LATZKE
Associated Press Writer
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Tasha Butts wants the ball with the game on the line for the Tennessee Lady Vols.
Butts scored in the lane with 1.7 seconds left and the Lady Vols beat Stanford 62-60 on Tuesday night to advance to the Final Four for the third straight year.
.raisedquote {font-family:arial, helvetica; font-size:14px; font-weight:700;}.raisedquotesig {font-family:arial, helvetica; font-size:12px; font-style: italic;}
Butts, guarded on the left block by All-American Nicole Powell, spun to her right and threw up a right-hander, which banked off the glass and fell through. Two nights earlier, Butts hit two free throws after a disputed end-of-game call to lift the Lady Vols (30-3) past Baylor in the Midwest Regional semifinals.
"It's unbelievable," Butts said. "The whole season, we've been put in situations like this and it always seems like I have the ball in my hands. I'm very confident I can make a play for our team."
After the basket Tuesday, Butts ran back on defense, slapped the floor with both hands and got a bear hug from Shyra Ely as Tennessee coach Pat Summitt called a timeout.
Powell caught a long inbounds pass on the right wing and heaved a 3-point attempt toward the basket, but it banged off the rim and out, and she exhaled in disappointment.
Stanford players and coaches questioned whether she was fouled during the shot.
"I felt like I was fouled a lot of times tonight," Powell said. "It's the NCAA tournament and that's the way it is."
Powell led Stanford (27-7) with 31 points and 10 rebounds, but was the only Cardinal player in double figures.
Summitt said she still thought the Lady Vols limited Powell's touches.
"If we hadn't defended her the way we did, I think she might have had 61," Summitt said.
Powell was selected the Most Outstanding Player for the Midwest Regional games in Norman. She had 47 points, 27 rebounds and 11 assists combined in Stanford's two games.
Her right-hander in the lane tied the game at 60 with 44.6 seconds.
Butts missed a layup on the other end, but Tennessee kept possession after Stanford's Chelsea Trotter knocked the rebound out of bounds under the basket with 21.7 seconds left.
Butts ran the clock down to 8.4 seconds before Summitt signaled for a timeout to set up the final play.
Butts charged to the left of the basket and turned her back to Powell.
"I felt like I had good position on her," Powell said. "She just worked her way in, spun and the ball rolled in."
Butts led Tennessee with 14 points, Ely scored 12 and LaToya Davis had 10. The Lady Vols advanced to play Southeastern Conference rival LSU in the Final Four on Sunday.
Tennessee lost to Connecticut in the championship game last year. The Huskies also eliminated the Lady Vols in the national semifinals in 2002 and the final in 2000.
But Summitt, selected the Naismith coach of the year Tuesday, said she was only thinking about LSU for now. Connecticut plays Minnesota in the other semifinal Sunday.
Tennessee has won eight straight games against Stanford and holds a 16-4 edge in the rivalry that has grown as the teams played at least once every year since 1988. Two of Stanford's wins came on the way to championships in 1990 and 1992.
The Cardinal has lost each of the last six games by six points or less.
"We've unfortunately been on the very close losing end," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "I think that by being that close our team has really overachieved."
The Cardinal took a 26-18 lead when Powell hit a jumper from the free throw line with 8:26 left in the first half. Powell scored 10 of the Cardinal's first 26 points as Stanford hit 13 of its first 20 shots.
But Tennessee charged back, holding Stanford scoreless for the next 5:38 as it scored 11 straight points and took the lead on a 3-pointer by Sidney Spencer with 3:13 to play before halftime.
VanDerveer called timeout to regroup, and Stanford scored the final five points of the half for a 31-29 lead.
Stanford tried only three free throws and made just one, and it didn't get any scoring from its bench.
VanDerveer said she couldn't pin down one reason for the loss.
"I think we had a lot of shots normally we knock down that we didn't knock down," VanDerveer said. "Just a lot of little things in a game like this. It comes down to a loose ball or one possession. I think that a lot of things are running through their minds right now."