Featured Stories
XU women advance
By Katie Budke, CNATI.com Posted March 21, 2010 10:13 PM ET
On paper, Xavier's first round match with 14-seeded East Tennessee State looked like a first round NCAA Tournament game should: a mismatch.
Only this game literally was a mismatch.
No ETSU player who contributed significant minutes throughout the Bucs season surpassed the 6-foot mark, while the Musketeers sport two 6-footers in the post: Ta'Shia Phillips at 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-5 Amber Harris.
The Musketeers opened the game with a 9-0 in the first two-plus minutes. It looked like Xavier would dominate inside and runaway with this one.
ETSU turned out to be the one who took advantage of Xavier's height going step-for-step with the Musketeers through the final minutes of the game. But the Xavier women continued to play with an unhindered confidence hitting timely shots down the stretch and eventually holding off the Bucs in a 94-82 Xavier victory.
When Tarita Gordon's jumper trimmed Xavier's lead to one with just 2:45 remaining in the game, there was no visible sense of panic among the Musketeers. Gordon hit five 3-pointers throughout the game and led the Bucs with 30 points.
"I wasn't worried. I wasn't worried," said junior forward Amber Harris shaking her head and smiling. "I knew we were gonna pick it up. I wasn't worried. I was just like oh ok it's time to go. They went on their run; it's time to go on ours."
Xavier regained its poise finishing the game on a 13-2 run. Special Jennings says it was all about the Musketeers having confidence in each other.
Just staying together," the senior guard said when asked what she was thinking in the final minutes. "Basketball is about making runs and making adjustments. Every team makes runs and that's what they did. Like coach McGuff said, they're a great team. They hit some shots, I mean some good ones."
That's an outlook teams have to have when the calendar flips to March and the madness kicks in. As a high seed in the tournament, and the fifth-ranked team in the nation, Xavier no doubt plays with a target on their back. Those accolades give Musketeer opponents an extra incentive in the NCAA Tournament.
ETSU certainly had visions of knocking off the Musketeers in the first round, but Jennings came up with two huge 3-pointers that helped lift Xavier to victory. The first came at the buzzer of the first half when Jennings launched a prayer from midcourt that found the net extending Xavier's lead from two points to five.
With 58 seconds remaining Jennings drained a 3-pointer from the right wing giving Xavier a six-point advantage and dashing the hope of a Buc upset.
"That was kind of like, I don't know what they say, the dagger," Jennings said. "That kind of just put the icing on the cake."
Bucs coach Karen Kemp knew Harris and Phillips would clog the lane so the coach preached hitting open, focusing on that in practice throughout the week. The practice paid off as
ETSU was able to stay with the Musketeers nearly the entire forty-minute game by hitting open jumpers and knocking down threes. ETSU shot 43.8 percent from the field and 48.4% behind the arc.
Xavier coach Kevin McGuff cited Xavier's size advantage as a disadvantage for the Musketeers.
"Coming in we knew they would be a great team. It's a hard matchup in that they're so small and we're so big that it's sometimes difficult to take away all those threes," McGuff said. "So what's supposed to happen is what ultimately happened. Our advantage around the basket won out. They put five people on the court who could shoot threes and that's hard to defend for us. When it's all said and done, we did what we had to do."
The size played out as Xavier scored 50 points in the paint and outrebounded ETSU by a 52-34 margin. Phillips had 21 of those rebounds for the Musketeers to go along with 23 points in a double-double performance. Harris led Xavier with 31 points.
"Our advantage clearly was around the basket today and I thought we did a great job getting them the ball. And they did a great job getting it themselves, especially Ta'Shia. That's what's supposed to happen this time of year. Players like that should carry you."
The two post players did carry Xavier, but so did the confidence in their ability to grind out a win. Even if players falter in the NCAA Tournament, a team's confidence cannot. Opponents sense that urgency and feed off of it. Sunday afternoon the Musketeers kept it together and came out on top.
They will need to do the same thing when they take on former Xavier Women's coach Melanie Balcomb and her 23-10 Vanderbilt Commodores Tuesday at 7 p.m.
"We just gotta stay focused and stay together," Jennings said. "As long as we continue to do what we're good at and what got us here, we'll end up getting the victory."
Categories: College, Featured Stories, Women's Basketball, Xavier Musketeers
Tags: Amber Harris, Kevin McGuff, Ta'shia Phillips, women, Xavier, XU
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