NASHVILLE — In the first game of the season between the Lady Vols and Georgia, her last-second shot didn’t fall.
In the second goaround, a semifinal matchup in the SEC tournament on March 6th, Bulldog freshman guard Janese Hardrick relived the moment and hit the shot.
“That’s what was going through my mind after the game,” Hardrick said.
“Coming down to the final seconds, I just tried to focus on hitting the layup because I knew I missed one in the last game.”
The resulting 68-66 overtime victory for Georgia brought an end to Tennessee’s string of winning close contests that had developed during the course of an undefeated SEC regular season.
The defeat also marked the third time in four seasons that the Lady Vols didn’t advance to the tournament finals.
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt foresaw the loss to the Bulldogs.
“We saw this coming as a coaching staff,” she said. “We were skating on the edge these last few weeks.
“We knew that we were not going to get very far if our guards don’t take care of the ball and we don’t have a low-post player who contributes consistently on offense.”
After suffering through a turnover-laden contest where the Lady Vols showed an inability to overcome pressure from Georgia’s quick, athletic guards, Summitt said the Bulldogs exposed her team’s biggest weakness.
“We don’t have a true point guard on this team right now,” the coach said. “We have done a great job of covering that up. But against teams with strong, aggressive guards, it catches up with us.”
Georgia coach Andy Landers, however, sees the transition that Tennessee has been forced to make with the loss of junior point guard Loree Moore in late January.
“I think this may be one of Pat’s best coaching jobs,” Landers said. “What happens when you lose Loree (Moore) or (Brittany) Jackson, it is not about just moving someone into the lineup. You have to reinvent your team. That they have been able to do that through two injuries is no small feat.”
With the loss, the Lady Vols returned to Knoxville to begin two weeks of preparation for the NCAA tournament. Heeding the lessons learned from the SEC tournament loss, the players believe, will be key to developing into a postseason contender.
“We have to refocus,” sophomore guard Shanna Zolman said. “We have to go back and look at our goals. Knowing the chemistry of this team, we’ll handle it (the loss) like champions.
“We have another tournament and that is the most important one.”
Despite losing in the tournament’s semifinals, the team’s likelihood at garnering a top seed were increased when No. 2 Texas (28-4), No. 3 Connecticut (25-4) and 4th-ranked Penn State (25-5) lost in their conference tournaments.
Summitt thinks her team’s commitment to facing a tough schedule should be reason enough to grant the 26-3 Lady Vols a top seed.
“I said one other time that there was no way that this team should get a number two seed and they stuck us with one,” Summitt said. “So I can’t say for sure what they’ll do.
“This isn’t a bad loss. We just have to take it and learn from it and continue to get better.”
