Tennessee, Georgia Give SEC Last Dance

Tennessee’s demons went spinning off into the dust bin Friday night, sent there by a player they call Spinderella.

Michelle Marciniak played 41 of 45 minutes and led the Lady Vols to an 88-83 overtime victory over Connecticut before 23,291 and into its second consecutive women’s national championship game Sunday against Georgia.

It was easily the best Final Four game since Charlotte Smith made a three-pointer at the buzzer to give North Carolina the 1994 national championships.

Tennessee’s coach, Pat Summitt, who only minutes earlier was red-faced and barking angrily at her players during the break between regulation and overtime, had her happy face on in short order. And she credited her senior guards, Marciniak and Latina Davis, for creating a real SEC title game Sunday.

UConn was 3-0 against Tennessee over the last 14 months, including the 60-54 victory in last year’s NCAA title game, and then, almost as painful for Tennessee, a 59-53 UConn win at Knoxville in January.

The Lady Vols seemed to have it clinched, 75-72, with seconds left in regulation. But Nykesha Sales made a three-pointer with four seconds to go in regulation.

It was then that Summitt got into everyone’s face.

“When they came back to the bench after that shot, I didn’t like the look on their faces, and I told them so,” she said.

“Michelle was literally beating herself up. I told them the team with the mentally toughest players will win this game.”

Marciniak, a 5-9 senior point guard from Macungie, Pa., was Summitt’s floor leader, particularly in the pitched battles at the end of regulation and overtime.

It was a crusher for UConn, which finished 34-4.

The Huskies lost their 6-foot-7 post player, Kara Wolters, who fouled out with 1:19 left. And Tennessee (31-4) took advantage of her earlier absences, when UConn Coach Geno Auriemma took her out twice in the second half.

Marciniak and Davis were the difference, Summitt said.

Marciniak had 21 points, six assists and three steals and seemed to have the ball at every key moment:

--With two minutes left in regulation, she made a crazy-looking left-handed layup from the right side to give Tennessee a 71-70 lead.

--With 14 seconds left, she made two free throws for a 75-72 lead, only to see Sales tie it seconds later.

--With 3:24 to go in overtime, she made a 14-foot jumper for a 79-77 lead.

--At 1:22, she stole the ball from UConn’s Jen Rizzotti, who had to foul her to prevent an uncontested layup. The free throw made it 82-81.

--With 17 seconds left, her two free throws made it 86-83 and then Davis iced it with two more with three seconds left.

The 5-5 Rizzotti might have created a second overtime with three seconds left and Tennessee leading, 86-83, but the Lady Vols’ 6-4 Tiffani Johnson partially blocked Rizzotti’s three-point attemp and it was over.

“We played 23 or 24 ranked teams this year, and the intensity we showed out there tonight matched anything we’ve done this year,” Summitt said.

The dream of a second consecutive national title (USC is still the only one to do it) in ruins, Wolters cried with her teammates.

“It was such a helpless feeling, being unable to help my teammates,” she said of fouling out.