SPOKANE, Wash. — Tennessee guard Ariel Massengale pulled down a defensive rebound and took the ball coast to coast for a layup Monday night to give the Lady Volunteers a 44-41 lead over the Terrapins women’s basketball team.
Massengale’s basket gave Tennessee 23 second-half points with 8:42 remaining after it had totaled 21 points in the first half against a stout Terps defense. The Lady Volunteers called a 30-second timeout, and the Terps used the break to regroup after Tennessee had hit four straight shots in less than two minutes.
With a trip to the Final Four hanging in the balance, the Terps defense clamped down over the final eight and a half minutes to pull out a 58-48 victory that sends coach Brenda Frese’s squad to Tampa, Florida, for a Final Four matchup against No. 1-seed Connecticut.
“I told my teammates to look at the clock, and it was under 10,” guard Laurin Mincy said. “When you’re that close to a Final Four, you got to lock in. We answered that calling.”
The No. 1-seed Terps entered the game averaging nearly 80 points per game, which ranked sixth in the country, but Monday’s contest transpired into a defensive struggle in which the first team to eclipse 50 was left cutting down the nets.
It wasn’t the type of game coach Brenda Frese’s squad was accustomed to playing this season. Before Monday, the Terps had failed to top 60 points once and their average margin of victory was nearly 20 points per game. But their second top-10 opponent of the season forced the Terps to win a tight contest with their defense.
“They’re a team that averages 80-plus points,” Tennessee forward Cierra Burdick said. “That’s something they lay their hat on is pushing the tempo and running every single possession. So, I think we did a decent job on that end of the floor.”
The Terps hit the big shots down the stretch, but their defense put them in a position to do so.
They held Tennessee to 32.4 percent shooting and forced them to 2 of 17 shooting after Massengale’s layup at the 8:42 mark.
“We wanted to ramp up our defense,” guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough said. “At that moment, we were [trading] baskets, so we recognized we had to get stops so we could extend our lead.”
Frese had the Terps start switching when the Lady Volunteers were setting on-ball screens in the final five minutes of the game after forward Bashaara Graves blew past the defense for an open left-handed layup.
“We went to a really aggressive switch in terms of the on-balls,” Frese said, “trying to keep them out of the paint.”
Graves’ basket with 5:19 left was the final time Tennessee would hold a lead. The Terps defense forced miss after miss down the stretch.
Center Brionna Jones didn’t even allow Tennessee’s final chance to cut its deficit to one possession to reach the basket. The 6-foot-3 sophomore came out to contest Massengale — the Lady Volunteers’ best three-point shooter — and swatted her jumper with 32 seconds left.
“The [block] that Bri had over Massengale was huge,” Frese said. “That play was one of the difference-makers.”
Even with the Terps scoring their lowest total of the season, the defensive pressure down the stretch ensured they would be one of four teams playing in Tampa this weekend.
“We knew down the stretch that we had to execute on offense and defense,” Mincy said. “That’s what we were able to do.”
