Well, that was pretty entertaining.
Washington University advances in women and men. Last two remaining participants in last year’s women’s final four eliminated, ending the careers of some great players (Mellody and Matt at Scranton, Marbles at Southern Maine). And 59 points for the All American Ben Strong in a triple overtime thriller. No, we haven’t named All Americans yet but, at least for tonight, I’m removing the “candidate” suffix for him.
There’s no way I can do justice to everything that happened, so let me try to give you a taste of the regional here at Luther.
Props to the Blue Crew: Luther fans packed the Regents Center and created a fantastic atmosphere. Their chants were creative (“tie-your-shoe-tie-your-shoe” as a Wash U player bent down to do so) and at one point even altered the game. In the first half, Wash U had the ball when the Blue Crew started counting down the shot clock. “5-4-3-2…”
Wash U forward Jaimie McFarlin fired up and missed a shot to beat the “shot clock” – with 3 seconds still remaining on the actual shot clock. Score one for the Blue Crew.
Future so bright: The players who took over the game for Wash U down the stretch were Zoe Unruh and Jaimie McFarlin. Unruh has a great first step and silky smooth jumper. McFarlin is tenacious on the glass with good quickness that creates open looks off offensive rebounds. And the scary thing here is Unruh is only a freshman and McFarlin a sophomore. Write these names down because they will be coming to D3hoops press releases near you for several seasons.
The Spirit of D3: Frequently the best, most striking moments happen aside from the games themselves. Tonight with a near empty gym one of the Luther players was sharing a moment with her family and friends. They shared words of encouragement with the player on the great season that just ended. Then her family turned to leave and she headed toward a separate door as the clock neared 10:30 pm local time on a Friday night.
Before leaving she looked over her shoulder and called back, “anyone wanna go to the library with me?”
That, friends, is what makes this special. Great games on the court and great kids off it.
Any idea how long it’s been since a school sent a men’s and women’s team to the Elite 8 or further?
Both UW-Stevens Point teams went to the Final Four in 2004.
It’s a sad night for a lot of seniors elsewhere, too. A lot of careers came to an end tonight, just two wins from the promised land. To all those who saw their run end earlier than they would like, congratulations from D3hoops.com on a great season and we hope you will come back to the site as alumni and fans of your alma maters. Or almas mater.
Gordon – one game alone makes that headline “Oh, what a night” an understatement: Guilford-Lincoln.
It is too bad people could have seen this game through video or TV. It was unbelievable. I have never seen a game where both teams had given so much of themselves… they were almost crawling up the court. Three overtimes and 257 points will do that to teams.
Through out the game, both teams had significant leads… only to see the other team some how fight back.
But it was the end of the regulation and the three overtimes that trumped anything these two teams in the previous 39:57.3 (to be exact).
Snipes’ effort to get the ball, get free of his defender and hit a half-running/half-set three from some where around 25 feet was truely remarkable… but the fact he buried it off the backboard and in as the buzzer sounded was incrediable. That lead to three very hard fought, draining, and emotional roller-coaster overtime periods which left nothing but wonder.
On top of all this, Ben Strong continued to amaze with 59 points including a 17-footer to tie the game in the second OT (with four seconds left) and then hitting one out of two free throws to give Guilford thier final lead of the night.
Lincoln and Guilford simply played one of the best – if not the best – game in Division III history. The fact it was in the NCAA Sweet 16 – with almost everything on the line – only made it better.
Oh, and by the way, interesting side note… VWC killed Lincoln with a last second three to end regulation and Lincoln’s hopes in the Sweet 16 last year at VWC.
Guilford hits a buzzer beater three to force the first overtime… and eventually ended Lincoln’s hopes in the Sweet 16 this year at VWC.
Shockingly, the next game between Mississippi College and Virginia Wesleyan didn’t come CLOSE to that Lincoln/Guilford game.
It was an honor to call the Lincoln/Guilford game and thanks to Mississippi College SID Chris Brooks for joining me. We must have exchanged at least a dozen “are you kidding me” looks during that game.
59 points from Strong… a banked 3 to tie the game at the buzzer… and two teams that simply wouldn’t give up… no matter how much they hurt and had NOTHING left.
PRICELESS and a classic!
Hats off!
Here’s what Lincoln SID Rob Knox sent me via e-mail:
Thanks to Rob for giving Lincoln professional work in the SID office in recent years. It’s a vast improvement.
Good morning
Sleep is overrated, particularly when you’re in Boston, the most aMAZEing city (explanation on spelling coming), so if you’re one of the two dozen DePauw fans or 50 odd Calvin fans who made the trip east, stop reading and head out to Fenway Park, the Freedom Trail, or my likely stop, the JFK Museum.
For the rest of you:
Boston might be the only city in the world where you can skip an entire highway in a set of directions, follow every other step to a T, and still end up at a Comfort Inn, even if it’s not the one you were booked into.
The routes you have to go to get through the city necessitate leaving plenty of time. Southern Maine coach Gary Fifield knew this, which is why his squad was at the Yawkey Center well ahead of schedule. “You never know what you’re gonna get,” he told me in describing the traffic pattern
On the basketball: aMAZEING is a good way to describe the play of DePauw, which zigzagged it’s way through Emmanuel’s pressing defense, running its offense as well as many of the country’s best men’s teams. The Tigers remind me a lot of Hope ’06 (the team they lost to in the Elite 8) with their combination of depth, speed, and size. A VERY impressive performance by coach Huffman’s squad.
Amazing (correct spelling)is also a good description for the first sectional semi here and an apt way to describe both the sweat and guts effort of Calvin, and the play of Southern Maine’s one-man show Ashley Marble. Both coaches had great gameplans and Fifield’s adjustments at halftime got his team back into it.
Just when it looked like USM had the game, Marissa Walker, fresh off the bench, nailed the biggest shot of the game, a 3, that cut the lead to 1, and the rest of the contest was back-and-forth dramatics until the very end. Don’t be fooled by Marble’s 32-points. Calvin, particularly Rachael Willett, defended her tremendously throughout the night.
Southern Maine will likely spend its summer rueing a 5-11 showing at the foul line, but the Huskies should be proud of their season as well. That they got as far as they did, with enough injuries to make an “Infirmary ward” (Fifield’s words) was absolutely, you guessed it, amazing.