Monday, March 31, 2014
Issue 52, Volume 125
A FEW FEET FROM ELITE Late foul call halts Vols’ comeback vs. Michigan Steven Cook Copy Editor INDIANAPOLIS—Everyone in Lucas Oil Stadium knew where the ball was going. After the most furious of lategame comebacks and a plethora of Michigan turnovers, Tennessee had the ball, down one, with 9.6 seconds to go and a chance at one final basket to send the Vols to their second Elite Eight in school history. Jarnell Stokes caught the inbound in a familiar position. Fifteen feet away from the rim, the 260-pound junior forward went isolation on Jordan Morgan. Then a hard shoulder landed in the Wolverines center’s chest to start Stokes’ move. Morgan flailed to the ground. Charge. After one failed half-court heave from senior guard Jordan McRae, the Vols’ season was done. Second-seeded Michigan slipped past No. 11-seeded Tennessee, 73-71, on Friday night in an NCAA tournament game for the ages that saw the Vols battle back from a 15-point deficit and the Wolverines narrowly
escape off the questionable offensive foul on Stokes in the final seconds. “We got the ball to Jarnell,” UT head coach Cuonzo Martin said of the fateful play. “Jordan (McRae) set a screen for him to get him right to isolate him, attack him in the middle. “Obviously we got the ball where we wanted. We just didn’t get the result.” Asked about the charge call, Stokes didn’t shy away from his thoughts. “No,” Stokes said. “No, I don’t think I fouled him.” Neither did Martin. “I thought he made a good move,” the third-year coach added. “The official called it a charge.” Tennessee did have one last look — the 60-foot heave from McRae at the buzzer. It sailed over the backboard. A devastated McRae fell to the floor and attempted to hold back tears before being helped off the court by his teammates. The senior guard scored a gamehigh 24 points in the final game of his collegiate career. Junior Josh Richardson added 19 more. See MEN’S BBALL on Page 8
Gage Arnold • Daily Beacon
Troy Provost-Heron • The Daily Beacon
Troy Provost-Heron Sports Editor
The Lady Vols exit the court after suffering a season-ending loss to Maryland in Louisville, Ky., at the KFC Yum! Center on March 30. Sunday’s loss ended the team’s hopes of a ninth national championship.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Every game, it seems, has gone the same way for the Tennessee Lady Volunteers throughout the postseason. It begins with a sluggish start, usually ending with a double-digit deficit. Then the comeback, a torrid combination of improved offensive performance and stifling defensive stands. And just like in recent games, the Lady Vols came out of the gates slow on Sunday, giving themselves an uphill path as they tried to reach their fourth consecutive admission to the Elite Eight. But unlike the past, the comeback never materialized. Tennessee found themselves eliminated from the NCAA tournament, losing to the Maryland Lady Terrapins, 73-62, inside the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky. “I hate that it ended the way it did,” head coach Holly Warlick said. “It wasn’t indicative of our season and how hard we played and what kind of team we are, but we just didn’t have our ‘A’ game today. I thought we
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came out a little scared and we just couldn’t pop out of it.” What Warlick called “nerves and jitters” showed early, as Maryland was able to jump out to a double-digit lead just 7:11 into the game. It was a deficit that the Lady Vols would get used to seeing throughout the afternoon. And while neither team shot the ball particularly well in the first half – Maryland shot 37.5 percent from the floor compared to Tennessee’s 32.1 percent – the Lady Terrapins capitalized when they needed to, scoring 14 points off of 14 UT turnovers. Those mistakes proved to be the difference in the first half – and the entire game – as Tennessee committed 22 turnovers on the afternoon and went into halftime trailing 41-27. “We came out really nervous, really timid, and we weren’t playing Lady Vol basketball,” junior forward Cierra Burdick said. “We weren’t the aggressors, and I think that hurt us early. The turnovers killed us. A lot of them were unforced, some of them were forced, but we just didn’t come out and play our ball.” See LADY VOLS RECAP on Page 7
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DOnald Page • Tennessee Athletics
Maryland runs past Lady Vols into Elite Eight
Senior guard Meighan Simmons ended her college career with a loss to Maryland, also ending the Lady Vols’ “Grind for Nine” national championship hopes.
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