March 27, 2008
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The old adage in sports is that defense wins championships. And while you can argue through the night as to just how important defense is to a team’s success, one thing that cannot be disputed is the impact Vanderbilt’s defense has had on the team’s success in the postseason.
Including its two games in the SEC Tournament, Vanderbilt has limited its last four opponents to just 31.3 percent (67-of-214) shooting from the floor, while holding three of its four opponents to season lows for both shooting percentage and points scored.
In the NCAA Tournament alone, Montana and West Virginia combined to score just 93 points, while shooting just 29.3 percent from the floor against the Commodores. Besides Vanderbilt, only LSU and Texas A&M have held its first two opponents to less than 100 points combined.
At the forefront of Vanderbilt’s defensive effort in the NCAA Tournament has been the post play of senior center Liz Sherwood.
Having logged a combined 44 minutes in the first two games of the tournament – the most in back-to-back games for Sherwood since also playing 44 minutes at Florida on Jan. 31 and at Georgia on Feb. 3 – Sherwood has been a game-changer for the Commodores on both offense and defense.
“I think Liz has been the X factor,” Vanderbilt head coach Melanie Balcomb said. ” She really has come in and done a great job.”
Defensively, the 6-foot-4 center has caused havoc in the lane for opposing teams. Most notably was against West Virginia in the second round when Sherwood’s presence had a profound impact on the Mountaineers’ play. West Virginia led Vanderbilt at the half, 29-27, but was outscored by 20 points in the second half.
After the game, West Virginia center Olayinka Sanni was quick to name Sherwood as the key to Vanderbilt pulling away in the second half.
“When (Vanderbilt) brought No. 32 (Sherwood) in, its post player, big bodied, athletic, I think she brought a lot intensity to their team. “She is very athletic and just took up a lot of space up.”
Offensively, Sherwood is shooting 60 percent from the floor and is averaging 10.5 points in the tournament. She scored 12 points and had four rebounds against Montana and had nine points and eight rebounds against West Virginia.
Overall, Balcomb couldn’t be happier with the way she has played.
“We always expect Liz to score and be a presence on offense, but defensively, she did a tremendous job on (West Virginia’s) post player (Olayinka) Sanni inside and she changed the game on both ends of the floor,” Balcomb said. “She got other people open and posted every single time down. It made more than one or two people guard her, so not only did she score, but she also got a lot of our players open for threes that you don’t realize watching the game.”
Sherwood has been just as pleased with her play as Balcomb has and she credits her defense for providing the spark.
“I’d say it is the best I’ve played lately for sure,” said Sherwood, who had reached double figures in scoring just once in her last 10 games prior to the NCAA Tournament. “I just want to be more of a presence on defense and make them shoot over me, and so far I’ve been able to be successful.”
Like Sherwood, Balcomb also believes that the Castle Rock, Colo., native is playing her best basketball at the most important time.
“Liz is a great player and she’s had some great games, but I think she is playing as good of basketball as she has since she’s been here at the right time,” Balcomb said.
Armed with a game-changing post presence and a stingy team defense, the Commodores just may have found the key ingredients needed for success in the NCAA Tournament.
So far, the combination has helped the team exceed most of its pundit’s by landing in the Sweet 16 for the 13th time in the last 19 years.
“We made it to the Sweet 16 and I think we’ve exceeded people’s expectations of us,” Sherwood said. “Now it is just time to have fun and hopefully keep on going.”
