Lady Vols Headed To Elite 8 With 73-69 OT Win

  • Sunday, March 29, 2015

For the 27th time Tennessee is headed back to the Elite Eight. The second-seeded Lady Vols had an epic rally to defeat upstart #11 seed Gonzaga, playing two miles from its campus, 73-69 in overtime, at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arenaon Saturday night.

Tennessee (30-5) will take on No. 1 seed Maryland (33-2) in the Elite Eight for a chance to reach their 19th Final Four, the most in NCAA history. The Lady Vols last advanced to the Final Four in 2008, winning their eighth national championship that year.

The Lady Vols rallied from down by as many as 17 points with6:34left in the second half to come away with their first overtime win in NCAA Tournament play since the 1996 Final Four.

It equalled the largest NCAA Tournament comeback in Lady Vols history. Tennessee rallied for a 52-46 win over Virginia in the 1996 Elite Eight to reach the Final Four on the way to the Lady Vols fourth national title.

The Lady Vols are now 120-25 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, ranking first in today games (145) and wins (120). Tennessee is a 27-6 all-time in regional semifinals.

The Lady Vols posted their first 30-win season since going 34-3 in 2010-11. It is Tennessee's 21st season with 30 or more wins, also an NCAA record.

Senior Cierra Burdick played a massive role in the comeback as she had 15 of her team-high 22 points in the second half and overtime. Burdick grabbed 15 rebounds to lead all players. Classmate Ariel Massengale tallied 16 points and Jaime Nared added 12.

Gonzaga (26-8) was led by Sunny Greinacher (24 points) and Keani Albanez (20).

After Tennessee rallied from down 17 with less than seven minutes to go in regulation, the Lady Vols and Zags went to overtime tied at 63. Burdick made all four of her free throw attempts to break a 67 all tie in the final minutes. That put Tennessee ahead 71-67 with 17 second left.

The Lady Vols were nearly perfect from the free throw line, going 21-of-22 from the line in the game for 95.5 percent.

Reynolds sealed the win, making two free throws with 3.7 second left as the Lady Vols were a perfect 10-of-10 in overtime. Tennessee didn't make a field goal in overtime.

The Lady Vols composed an amazing late-game rally to dig out of the 17-point deficit. Tennessee went on a 23-6 run to end the second half to send the game to overtime, tied at 63.

The Lady Vols shaved 10 points off the margin in less than three minutes. A Massengale 3-pointer with four minutes left brought the Lady Vols within seven at 61-54.

Massengale's putback layup with three minutes left, cut it to 61-56.

The run extended to 11-0 as Tennessee got within one point at 61-60 on a Graves layup with two minutes left.

Jordan Reynolds connected on a pair of free throws with1:30left to give the Lady Vols their first lead since a 10-9 advantage,4:29into the game.

Emma Wolfran's layup with 58 seconds left briefly regained the lead for the Zags, 63-62. It ended their drought of4:13.

Reynolds tied the game at 63, making the first of two free throws with 42.1 seconds left in regulation.

Elle Tinkle blocked Graves layup attempt as time expired to end regulation to send the teams to an extra five minutes.

With the game tied at the half, Gonzaga came out strong with a 13-2 spurt to take an 11-point lead, 47-36, eight minutes into the second half. The Lady Vols missed 11 field goal attempts in a row and went scoreless for a span of5:34.

Tennessee had just two points in the first8:22of the second half.

Massengale and Nared knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 43 seconds of the first half to pull Tennessee even with Gonzaga, 34-34, after the Lady Vols trained for virtually the entire first half.

The Lady Vols fell behind 20-12 midway through the first half, as the Zags went on a 14-2 spurt as Tennessee was held scoreless for a span of4:15, missing nine field goal attempts in a row.

The game was Tennessee's first NCAA Tournament game to go to overtime since an 88-83 win over UConn in the 1996 Final Four.

The Lady Vols are now 4-0 all-time vs. Gonzaga and 12-0 vs. West Coast Conference foes.

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