Double Digit Underdog Marquette 2019 Rains in 3s vs. Tennessee 1989 in All-Time Midwest Women's Clash

First we will show the playing cards for our all-time Midwest game between our 15-seed Marquette 2019 team and our 2-seed Tennessee 1989 team. While double digit underdogs like MU in this game came in only 12-76 in our game, this was a thriller Value Add Basketball Game as you can see when you scroll down.

The three Tennessee teams in the game coached by Pat Summitt's, with the all time record of 1,098-208, are now 5-1 in our game.

We did catch on slight mistake on a card we will fix (the biggest reason we try to play every team once in the game). Marquette Center Erika Davenport was listed as Suggested Play 27-1. meaning the final 27 possessions of the game. We will correct that to have her suggested play be 44-30 (the first 15 possessions of a game) and then 11-1) which lets super sub and 3-point specialist Selena Lott stay on with a smaller line-up while Davenport is resting from the 29th to 12th possession counting down.

As you can see from the screen shots of the two teams' player cards, the 1989 Tennessee team is rated a +13 while the 2019 Marquette team is a -5, so we expect Tennessee to be about an 18-point favorite. This just means Marquette ranks as about 5 points worse than the average GREAT team in the game. Obviously they were a very good team and during the season they won their average game 82-62.

Above the actual Tennessee player cards you see other notes such as that we rank this as the 7th greatest all-time team in the game, and the fact that we only take one great team per school from a great program means we chose this 1989 team instead of the two other great teams from 1987 or 1991.

Double digit underdogs are 13-76 in our all-time Great Value Add Basketball games, but the Marquette 2019 team came out and did three things that can lead to upsets; 1) from the 40th to the 16th possessions they hit an incredible eight 3-pointers  (so eight 3-pointers in 25 total possessions); 2) They got the opposing superstar Bridgette Gordon in foul trouble early, and 3) they forced 21 turnovers. 

If you look at the suggested possessions played you will see that the five Tennessee subs all played the first seven possessions (44 down to 38) and Marquette's future WNBA player Natisha Hiedeman had just hit a 3-pointer to put Marquette up 32-24 when all the Tennessee starters came in to play possessions 37 to 1 and finish the game.

The Vols put on a tremendous run led by several of Bridgette Gordon's six steals in the closing minutes converted into baskets at the other end as the Vols won the last 3 minutes of the game 8-2 but Marquette held them off for a 68-64 win to advance as the big upset 15-seed winner.'

Freshman and future star Chloe Marotta score the first two baskets, and another bench player Selena Lott who always played most of games but off the bench had the four 3-pointers that sent Marquette to the double digit lead. However, down the stretch it was the all-senior starting five that held off the huge Tennessee run and will now await the winner of the Midwest 7-seed vs. 10-seed game between Ohio State 1993 and Vanderbilt 2002. While an underdog against an all-time great, this MU team rose to No. 8 in the polls and lost by only 5 points at #6 Mississippi State, beat a ranked DePaul team 2 of 3 including a 33-point win, and beat a ranked Rice team in Texas in the first round of the NCAA before losing just 76-78 at a ranked Texas A&M team to just miss the Sweet 16.

Pat Summitt's three teams in the game were probably due for one loss, as they were 5-0 and all three ranked in our top seven teams of all time before this loss, as tracked on our record of scores. Likewise the Marquette program was likely due for a win as the all-time great men's results nullshow the Marquette teams of Dwyane Wade, national champ Butch Lee and Bo Ellis and others are 8-9 in the game. 

The win shoots Marquette from 50th to 30th in our rankings, while Tennessee drops from 7th to 17th. This is a jump similar to when Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings DePaul team shocked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's UCLA team. With Tennessee dropping, UConn now has three of the top eight teams and four of the top 10 teams in history in our game. All 13 double digit upsets are listed here.

 

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	F
Marquette 2019	14	23	18	13	68
Tennessee 1989	14	13	21	16	64

Pos	Marquette 2019	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht,Pts,Reb,Ast
1-PG	Danielle King	7	1	2	0	0	3	4	0	2	5'5, 11.9, 4.0, 3.6
2-SG	Natisha Hiedeman	16	2	3	4	4	1	2	1	2	5'8, 17.6, 6.1, 4.5
3-SF	Amani Wilborn	6	0	3	0	0	3	1	1	1	5'9, 11.5, 4.1, 3.3
4-PF	Allazia Blockton	4	0	2	0	0	5	0	0	2	6'0, 14.3, 4.3, 2.2
5-C	Erika Davenport	2	0	1	0	0	5	0	0	2	5'11, 11.9, 9.4, 1.1
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht,Pts,Reb,Ast
1-PG	Selena Lott	18	4	3	0	0	3	2	0	1	5'11, 7.1, 3.3, 1.4
2-SG	Isabelle Spingola	5	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'0, 5.2, 2.2, 0.5
3-SF	Chloe Marotta	6	0	3	0	0	2	0	0	2	6'1, 2.6, 2.3, 0.3
4-PF	Altia Anderson	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'2, 0.9, 2.1, 0.2
5-C	Lauren Van Kleunen	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'2, 4.5, 3.7, 0.8
	13 Turnovers	68	8	20	4	4	26	9	2	15
Pos	Tennessee 1989	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht,Pts,Reb,Ast
1-PG	Tonya Edwards	4	0	1	2	2	1	2	0	1	5'10, 9.7, 3.0, 3.4
2-SG	Dena Head	5	1	1	0	0	3	1	0	1	5'10, 6.4, 3.0, 3.0
3-SF	Bridgette Gordon	18	3	4	1	1	7	6	0	4	6'0, 20.4, 7.0, 2.7
4-PF	Sheila Frost	12	0	6	0	0	9	0	5	1	6'4, 13.7, 6.7, 0.9
5-C	Daedra Charles	11	0	5	1	5	5	0	0	1	6'3, 9.8, 6.7, 0.7
Pos	Bench	Pts	3pt	2pt	FT	Att	Reb	Stl	Blk	Fl	Ht,Pts,Reb,Ast
1-PG	Melissa McCray	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	5'10, 6.4, 3.1, 3.6
2-SG	Debbie Scott	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'1, 4.5, 1.8, 1.0
3-SF	Regina Clark	6	0	3	0	0	2	0	0	1	5'8, 5.1, 2.2, 1.1
4-PF	Carla McGhee	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	6'3, 5.3, 5.4, 1.2
5-C	Kelli Casteel	2	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	6'2, 3.8, 1.9, 0.1
	21 Turnovers	64	4	24	4	8	32	9	5	13