Last undefeated team falls to Rutgers
NOAH AMSTADTER
Assistant Sports Editor
So much for a perfect season.
The No. 11 Rutgers women's basketball team avenged a Jan. 6 loss at the Joyce Center, toppling the nation's only undefeated team, 54-53 on Saturday night.
Tammy Sutton-Brown led the Scarlet Knights, converting a three-point play with 28.1 seconds remaining before blocking Niele Ivey's last second shot under the basket.
The loss drops the Irish to 23-1 overall, 12-1 in the Big East.
"There was absolutely no burden at all," Irish coach Muffet McGraw told the Associated Press following the game. "We wanted to go through the whole year undefeated."
As for suggestions that a loss would be good for the Irish, who have never been undefeated this late in a season, McGraw disagreed.
"I don't see it that way," McGraw said. "I think this was a great opportunity for us to get a big win on the road and we missed our opportunities at the end."
The game was decided when the Scarlet Knight guards found Sutton-Brown open on the lower-left block, where she powered past Irish center Ruth Riley for the score plus a foul. The foul was Riley's fifth of the game — sending the All-American center to the bench on fouls for the first time this season.
On the ensuing possession, the Irish struggled bringing the ball up the court, taking nearly 15 seconds. Guard Niele Ivey was able to move past Rutgers' Linda Miles. Irish guard Alicia Ratay then set a screen, allowing Ivey to move past Tasha Pointer. However, once Ivey reached the lane, Sutton-Brown was there to block the 5-foot-7 Ivey's shot.
"I knew it was just me and her, one-on-one," Pointer told the Home News Tribune. "At the last second she turned the corner. Thank God my big girl came through and made that block."
In hindsight, McGraw wishes she had intervened on the play.
"I should have called time-out," McGraw told the New York Times. "We were very, very tentative."
Kelley Siemon, who led the Irish with 19 points and 15 rebounds while still playing with a broken hand, agreed.
"It's a little tough," Siemon told the New York Times. "We only needed two points to win. We assumed Niele could get the ball up the floor and she being triple-teamed. There was confusion at the end."
Pointer led the Scarlet Knights with 12 points and three blocked shots coming off the bench.
"She's the hero of the game," McGraw told the Associated Press. "She didn't play as well as she did in South Bend, but in the end they wanted to go to her, so they went to her and she scored. That was a great play by her."
The game was marred with questionable calls. Irish forward Ericka Haney, who scored 12 points on four of 14 shooting, felt that Rutgers may have gotten away with too much down low.
"I think that they got a lot of breaks," Haney said. "I think that we were on the side that didn't get the most calls. I think that had the game been played at Notre Dame, it would have been totally different."
The Irish shot 40 percent from the field, and only 50 percent from the line. Siemon was the only starter who made more than 50 percent of her shots, while the Irish got zero points off the bench.
"I wouldn't credit that to their defense, I would just credit that to us missing shots," Haney said. "I thought that there were a lot of fouls under the basket that weren't called."
Riley had her least productive game of the season for the Irish, despite scoring eight of her 12 points in the final minutes. Riley, who leads the Big East in shooting percentage and ranks near the top in free-throw shooting, made only six of 14 attempts from the field while missing her only two free throws in the final minutes.
"I don't think I was in the game at all," Riley told the New York Times. "I shot the ball poorly."
The only Irish player who didn't shoot poorly was Siemon, who made six of nine field goal attempts and shot above her season average from the line — connecting on seven of 14 free-throw attempts.
"They couldn't do anything with Kelley," Haney said. "Her taking the ball up to the basket was the one thing they really couldn't stop. I really didn't think that they had an answer for her."
The Irish now face questions heading into the postseason. The team still ranks as the No. 1 team in the Big East, as they have defeated Connecticut, the only other team in the conference with one loss in the league.
However, Notre Dame could fall to No. 2 in the NCAA bracket, as the Tennessee Volunteers also have only one loss — to the No. 3 Huskies. The Irish also now must win the Big East Tournament — where they could play both Rutgers and Connecticut — to assure a top seed during March Madness.
Right now, though, the Irish are simply looking to learn from the experience and move on towards Tuesday's home game against Miami.
"We're taking it more as a learning experience," Haney said. "We would like to see where we're going to be after the loss, but I don't think it's going to affect us that much."
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 19, 2001
