Vols Win Game of Streaks Over UConn in all-time semifinal

LaShonda Stephens and game MVP Tamika Catchings (14 points, 4 steals, 4 blocked shots) led a 19-9 streak to close the first half with the 1998 Vols leading 39-29. 

Maya Moore then dominated the first 10 possessions after halftime to lead a 20-10 run and tie the game 49-49 with 14:25 (24 possessions) to play.

It stayed close until the 5 minute mark, but the Vols had one more streak than UConn with Kellie Jolly. First Jolly stole a pass and on the break to hit a 3-pointer to make it 62-59. She scored again to make it 64-59, then drove to score and was fouled, hitting the free throw to make it 72-63.

On the next trip Catchings grabbed two straight offensive rebounds, putting in the last one to make it 74-65, and Tennessee 1998 to a 82-71 win to advance to our all-time championship and send 2010 UConn to our 3rd place game.

The other semifinal will feature 1982 Louisiana Tech against 2018 Notre Dame.

The game took 31 minutes to play from first dice roll to last in the Value Add Basketball Game. 

Pat Summitt's Vols Eliminate Griner's Baylor, 73-63

As an almost perfect rebounder, Britney Griner (1-9 offensive rebounder, 1-10 defensive rebounder) was held in check by the perfect rebounder in our Value Add Basketball Game in Chamique Holdsclaw (1-10, 1-10). 

As a result, Pat Summitt's undefeated 1998 Tennessee Vols won the battle of the boards 39-30 and pulled away from a 59-56 lead with five minutes to go to win 73-63.

Tennessee is our first Final Four team in the all-time great Women's basketball tournament, and will face UConn 2010, which barely survived 74-72 vs USC 1983.

The other Final Four game will be the winner of Notre Dame 2018 and UConn 2016 vs the winner of La Tech 1982 and Baylor 2019.

Griner is arguably the best player in the game, as an elite shot blocker and one of the few offensive players to score or draw a foul on rolls of 1-14 and only miss a shot on a 15-20. 

However, unlike the 2019 Baylor lineup where everyone was WNBA bound, point guard Odyssey Sims was the only true star in the 2012 team besides Griner, and that two on five was not enough for Baylor.

The Vols had an unlikely hero in point guard Ace Clement, who is a great shooter but rarely gets the ball to shoot. However this time Holdsclaw (14 points, 12 rebounds) grabbed several offensive rebounds and passed out to Clement who hit shots including a 3-pointer that made it 67-56 with 7 possessions (3:58) to play.

Clement scored 19 points in the game. Typically a trio of other Vols could all put up 20 in the same game - Holdsclaw, Tamika Cummings and Kelly Jolly.

Worth noting that as a freshman Griner first made her true mark by stunning a much weaker Lady Vols team with 27 points and 10 rebounds, and then dominated them again two years later in the last game coached by Summitt. However, that last team was 27-9, not 39-0 like the team in our game.

Pat Summitt's 1998 Lady Vols 80, Liebermann's 1980 ODU 55

Even against perhaps the best women's team in history, ODU's Nancy Lieberman was spectacular with 17 points and 6 steals. However, all five starters scored in double figures for Pat Summitt's 39-0 Tennessee squad from 1998, and center Chamique Holdsclaw scored 12 points with 14 rebounds and four blocked shots as the Lady Vols started the second half on a 12-1 run to pull away for an easy 80-55 win.

For those who play the game, the table in the game instructions showed as overwhelming Vols edge. Tennessee's "51-54=Layup" combined with ODUs defensive "adjust opp LU by 4" combined to give the Vols an uncontested lay-up on a 51-62 on the 11-66 roll each time they had the ball. The suffocating 39-0 Tennessee national champs played out in their -3 on on their adjustment - since ODU had no lay-ups their offensive cards, the -3 on the Tennessee cards meant on rolls of 51-53 the Vols had an automatic STOP meaning missed shot on defensive rebound.

The game took 37 minutes to play as we start from a 20-20 tie and give each team 44+ possessions. With the reserves in for the first seven possessions, ODU's Noreen Kemether hit a 3-pointer immediately, and when the starters came in for both teams with 37 possessions left ODU was within 26-28. However the Tennessee starters were just too much.

Below the starters we show the box score on the game followed by a photo of our first scoresheet in women's play.

Tennessee had home court advantage as the #3 seed, but for the first time in one of our games the 18-seed ODU did not get a single bad call. This was our first Value Add Basketball Game with our new all-time great women's team cards. Tennessee is one of 10 teams to host an opening round game, and will be one of six teams to get a buy to the quarterfinals as one of the top six seeds to advance. The bottom four seeds to advance will be the only teams with a 2nd round game as they will play second round games against each other to get to the quarterfinals.

Here is the box score.

at #3 Tennessee 80, #18 Old Dominion 55

#18 Old Dominion 1980	Pts	Reb	Steals	Blocks	Fouls
Nancy Lieberman	17	2	6	2	4
Angela Cotman	3	1	1	0	2
Rhonda Rompola	6	4	1	0	2
Inge Nissen	2	5	0	0	4
Anne Donovan	13	8	0	3	1
Chris Critelli	2	1	0	0	1
Sue Brown	2	2	0	0	2
Noreen Kemether	6	4	0	0	2
Linda Jerome	2	2	0	0	2
Susan Richardson	2	1	0	0	1
Old Dominion 1980 Totals	55	30	8	5	21

Turnovers: ODU 15, Tennessee 14

 

#3 Tennessee 1988	Pts	Reb	Steals	Blocks	Fouls
Kristen "Ace" Clement	16	3	1	0	1
Kellie Jolly	11	4	1	1	2
Tamika Catchings	10	5	3	0	1
Semeka Randall	13	5	1	0	1
Chamique Holdsclaw	12	14	0	4	4
Laurie Milligan	2	1	0	0	1
Brynae Laxton	3	2	0	0	1
Niya Butts	5	1	0	0	2
LaShonda Stephens	6	2	0	0	1
Teresa Geter	2	4	0	0	1
Tennessee 1988 Totals	80	41	6	5	15

Based on our calculation of the cards, Tennessee was actually a 31-point favorite in the game with the top four seeds heavily favored. South Carolina calculates as just one point better than Ohio State based on their player cards, but with home advantage being worth three points they are favored by four.

Match-up	Home Favored	Actual
#20 Long Beach St. 1987 at #1 Connecticut 2016	34
#19 Duke 2006 at #2 Connecticut 2010	32
#18 Old Dominion 1980 at #3 Tennessee 1998	31	W 80-55
#17 Texas 2018 at #4 Louisiana Tech 1982	25
#16 Louisville 2014 at #5 Baylor 2019	14
#15 Oregon 2019 at #6 Baylor 2012	13
#14 Washington 2017 at #7 USC 1983	9
#12 Mississippi St. 2018 at #8 Stanford 2021	9
#13 Notre Dame 2018 at #9 Texas A&M 2011	7
#11 Ohio St. 2016 at #10 South Carolina 2017	4
2nd round
Bottom 4 winners in 1st round face off
Quarterfinals
Two second round winners join Elite 8