March 21, 2007
AP Recap: Bowling Green 59 Vanderbilt 56
By Will Matthews
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| (AP Photo/Al Goldis) |
EAST LANSING, Mich. – There was something painfully ironic about the only 3-point basket Caroline Williams made all night Tuesday.
The fact that it came with just 1.3 seconds left in a game that essentially was already out of reach belied the ways in which the Vanderbilt senior guard, in concert with fellow seniors Dee Davis and Carla Thomas, had all year led their Commodore team to heights that at the outset of the season were not altogether expected: 28 wins – the most in Head Coach Melanie Balcomb’s five-year tenure and the highest total for the Vanderbilt program since the 2001-2002 season – a third place regular season finish in the Southeastern Conference and an SEC Tournament championship.
In a Vanderbilt locker room dominated by tears in the aftermath of a 59-56 loss to Bowling Green that ended the Commodores’ season in the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year, it was those heights that the team struggled to be mindful of in the face of staggering disappointment.
“Immediately, you just think of all of the hurt and you just want to cry and get it all out,” Williams said. “But we tried to explain to each other that there are so many great things that we have done this year. To get yourself out of that hurt you do have to think back and think of the SEC championship and the great games that we have won and, most importantly, what we have become as a team friendship-wise. We will think about that later, but right now it just hurts too badly.”
Tuesday’s loss certainly was not the way Vanderbilt envisioned ending a season marked by individual and collective accomplishments.
Davis became the program’s all-time leader in assists, Williams its leader in 3-point field goal percentage, both Davis and Williams surpassed 1,000 points for their careers and Thomas, in addition to earning Most Valuable Player honors at the SEC Tournament, became Vanderbilt’s sixth leading all-time scorer with 1,774 career points.
Both Thomas and Davis were All-SEC First Team Selections – Thomas being a unanimous choice – Williams was named to the All-SEC Second Team and junior Liz Sherwood was the SEC’s Sixth Woman of the Year for the second consecutive season.
But the time for reflecting back upon those accomplishments has now arrived much sooner than Balcomb or any of the Commodores would have liked.
“It is too early for them and that is what I feel bad about,” Balcomb said. “I can sit back and already think how much fun we had and how much they have done because I have seen them grow up. I have seen them mature and I have seen them in good times and bad. And the sad part is that they can’t see that right now. But they will soon. And I think they will appreciate everything.”
After a first half which saw Vanderbilt fall behind by 13 points after turning the ball over 11 times and missing all three of the 3-point shots it attempted, the Commodores played much more aggressive defensively in the second half. Vanderbilt held Bowling Green to just five field goals during the game’s final 20 minutes but the hole had just been dug too deep. The Commodores continued trying to prolong the game, fouling even with less than a second to go.
But freshman Meredith Marsh was unable to get a last gasp shot attempt off after Vanderbilt inbounded the ball from its own baseline with .4 seconds left.
“The fact that we battled for as long as we could shows the fight that we have in us,” Williams said. “As a team we never gave up, even if there was only .4 seconds left on the clock. We always believed that somehow we were going to find a way to win. We always believed that a miracle can happen. It just didn’t happen to us tonight.”
For players like Sherwood, Tuesday’s loss was especially hard to swallow knowing it means the end to the collegiate careers of the three seniors whom Balcomb said sacrificed all year to be the kind of leaders the team needed.
“All year long our three seniors led us and it is just so sad that we have to go out in the second round,” said Sherwood, who dominated in the interior Tuesday and scored 18 points off the bench – her highest output since scoring 19 against South Florida Dec. 17. “It is a tough loss for everyone. We are such a close team. We are going to miss our seniors a lot.”
But Williams is confident that out of the disappointment will ultimately rise a lasting memory of a season from which memories of success can be drawn.
“In times of hurt the way you get out of it is by knowing that something good is going to come out of it,” Williams said. “You have to believe that because if you don’t have faith in that then you will never get over the disappointment. I think this is a time to reflect and know that we are a good team. We just didn’t show it this tournament.”
Will Matthews spent three years as an investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group in Southern California. He is currently in his third year at Vanderbilt Divinity School.
