Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – An apparent time freeze of two-to-three seconds Monday night enabled top-ranked Tennessee to emerge with a 59-58 victory over No. 5 Rutgers, preventing the Scarlet Knights from historical notoriety in the nationally-televised contest.

Trailing by a point, the Vols had missed successive shots under their basket as the clock showed two-tenths of a second remaining in the game. As Tennessee senior Nicky Anosike went after another offensive rebound, a large portion of press row and several WNBA coaches noticed that time was standing still. TV replays later indicated likewise.

Poised to celebrate a great moment, Rutgers was stunned as junior Kia Vaughn was called for her fifth foul, sending Anosike to the line.

The 6-foot-4 senior center, who had shot 0-for-7 from the field, hit both free throws and controversy once again wrapped its arms around another Rutgers nightmare finish.

“Basically, I hadn’t done anything to help my team or help us win,” Anosike said of her thoughts at the foul line. “I knew I was going to have to step up.”

Tennessee (22-1) had regained the top spot in the Associated Press women’s poll earlier in the day, replacing Connecticut after the Huskies had been upset by Rutgers (19-4) last Tuesday in a battle of the two Big East titans in Piscataway, N.J.

Had Rutgers won here Monday night, the Scarlet Knights would have become the first team in the 32-year history of the Associated Press poll to beat successive No. 1 teams back-to-back.

The defeat was not costly in terms of Rutgers’ bid for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Scarlet Knights have already beaten Connecticut and Maryland, who are contending for top spots. Tennessee is also in the hunt, and the narrow result probably helps coach C. Vivian Stringer’s team more than it hurts.

However, a month remains until the NCAA tournament committee meets, and Rutgers still has at least one game left with Connecticut on March 3, and potentially one a week later in the Big East title game if both teams advance.

Rutgers wore pink uniforms and the entire Thompson-Boiling Arena with a crowd of 17,690 was awash in pink as part of the sport’s ongoing breast cancer awareness campaign across the country this week sponsored by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. The referees had pink shoelaces and pink whistles, and even Tennessee men’s coach Bruce Pearl wore attire more reflective of the initiative than the normal splash of orange that is Tennessee’s predominate color.

Monday night was the first time the Vols and Knights met since Tennessee prevailed in last season’s NCAA title game in Cleveland, ending a Cinderella run by Rutgers after a woeful start in November and December.

But it is not the first time Rutgers has been involved in wild finishes the last two seasons.

The Scarlet Knights lost to Stanford at home in the season opener in November when Epiphanny Prince was assessed a foul with a tenth-of-a-second on the clock and the Cardinal gained an upset.

A year ago in March, Rutgers dodged what would have been a gauling defeat in the NCAA regional semifinals against Duke. That’s when Blue Devils all-American Lindsey Harding missed two foul shots with one-tenth of a second on the clock, although there was nothing controversial about the foul call on then-freshman Myia McCurdy.

“It just seems those tenths of a second just seem to keep popping up in the Scarlet Knights’ life,” Rutgers senior Essence Carson said after the Tennessee game.

They’ve also popped up over the years in the storied career of coach C. Vivian Stringer at Iowa and Cheyney prior to joining the Rutgers program in the summer of 1995.

The Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer was visibly distressed here while she attempted to address the situation without getting herself in trouble with her comments.

“I just happen to be on the end of human error too many times with too many erasers at the end of my name and I’m sorry, because these women deserve better. The clock froze.

“The game did not deserve this. Tennessee didn’t deserve this. (Coach) Pat (Summitt) did not deserve this. Those great players didn’t deserve this and neither did my great team deserve this. It is what it is.”

Bob Trammell, Tina Napier, and Bonita Spence worked the game.

A statement from the officials obtained by Tennessee’s sports information department addressed a situation, but it spoke of the time after Anosike’s foul shots and not what seemed to have occurred before.

Debbie Jennings, the Tennessee women’s media contact, said the clock is operated by the game officials on the court and not the scorer’s table.

She said the arena manager described the device the game officials use to stop and start the clock. They were using “precision time,” which controls the game clock and also the game clock because they are in a synchronized mode.

The official’s whistle has a microphone attached to it and each official carries a belt pack. The whistle stops the clock and the belt pack has a switch which starts the clock.

Noise goes through the microphone to a processor in the pack and the pack sends a wireless signal to the precision time base unit, which is attached to the clock.

The question is how many milliseconds does it take for the signal to get to the base unit.

The arena official, commenting on any electrical flaw, said batteries are fresh each game and the belt pack can be changed immediately if there is a problem.

Summitt did not appear aware of the “time freeze” issue when she arrived at the postgame press conference and began addressing Tennessee’s narrow escape.

“I’m not sure how we managed to win,” Summitt said. “Statistically, what I was proud of was we were able to keep ourselves in the game, even though midway through the second half we were 1-for-15 from the floor.

“You’re not going to win many games shooting that way unless you take care of the ball. We kept our turnovers down.

Summitt said despite Anosike’s struggles, she placed her in the game for defensive purposes. “And then she made both of those free throws,” Summitt said.

“We were fortunate to win. I’m just proud we found a way to win.”

Junior Candace Parker, the projected No. 1 player in the WNBA draft if she opts out of Tennessee, which is legally entitled, showed little effects from a bruised knee suffered Thursday night at Mississippi State.

The native of Chicago had 27 points, 10 rebounds, and five blocked shots. Angie Bjorklund added 13 points.

Prince had 21 points for Rutgers, Carson scored 18, and Vaughn grabbed 11 rebounds.

Rutgers, which is now 0-5 here, struggled in the first half, trailing 34-23 at the end of the period. But Stringer’s bunch were not dismayed after experiencing second-half rallies in the wins over Connecticut and Maryland.

A 10-0 run at the start of the second half brought Rutgers within a point at 34-33 after Matee Ajavon hit a 12-footer with 15:15 to go in the game.

Tennessee, which shot 29.6 percent from the field in the game, made only six field goals in the second half.

“Rutgers did a rtremendous job,” Summitt said. “They are so good off the dribble and in their halfcourt offense. Their shot selection was more impressive than ours tonight.”

Prince hit a layup to give Rutgers a 39-38 lead with 10:21 to go and except for a brief tie, the Scarlet Knights stayed narrowly ahead much of the half.

An upset looked close to reality when Vaughn’s putback gave Rutgers a 56-51 lead with 1:39 left in the game.

But Shannon Bobbitt from Manhattan nailed a three-pointer with 1:24 left and then Bjorklund followed with a trey with 49 seconds left to give the Vols a one-point lead at 57-56.

Rutgers wasn’t finished, however.

After the Scarlet Knights retained possession on a scramble under their basket, Carson hit a 19-footer with 23 seconds left for a 58-57 lead.

As the clock began to count down, Tennessee went length of the court, but Bobbitt missed a shot, Parker got a rebound and then she missed, and then the controversial moments began as Stringer and her staff were starting to celebrate.

“We really thought we had won,” Stringer said. “That’s an interesting emotion. Being picked up (by an assistant coach) and before you can even come down, you’ve been tapped and `hello.’ That’s a cruel joke they’re playing down here. That’s an amazing thing to go from an extreme high to an extreme low.

Stringer said she talked to the officials about the clock.

“They said everything was fine. The foul was called before and they had looked at the clock on the monitor and the foul was called before time went off,” Stringer said.

“So now we’ve got bad eyes, too. I think that (Rutgers spokeswoman) Stacey (Brann) said they looked at it in slow motion, so they somehow missed in it real time.”

When Rutgers’ postgame press conference began, a Tennessee sportswriter asked Stringer about the clock situation.

“Looked like the clock froze,” he responded.

“Here at Tennessee. Wow!” Stringer said.

“Looked like the clock froze.

“That’s a good one. I’m going to remember that one. I’ll just remember at the end of it, the explanation _ the clock froze.”

-- Mel