University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols Combine Efforts To Defeat Broncos
March 21, 2015 | Women's Basketball
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
-- When Tennessee lost Isabelle Harrison for the season in February, head coach Holly Warlick said it was on the rest of the team to step up and replace her points and rebounds together.Perhaps the most shining example of coming together to get the job done came in Tennessee's 72-61 win over Boise State in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
Most of the production to replace Harrison's numbers had come from the trifecta of junior Bashaara Graves and seniors Cierra Burdick and Ariel Massengale, supplemented by the increased role of freshman Jamie Nared. That was true again on Saturday, but not in the traditional sense of all three playing a complete game, adding a bit to their usual numbers.
Burdick and Nared had the rebounds covered. Burdick pulled down a team-high 11 to tie her best NCAA Tournament performance, while Nared snagged a career-best 10. But Burdick did not score in the game and Nared was held to just six points.
In stepped Graves and Massengale with a combined 42 points. A team effort.
"It is about people stepping up," Warlick said after complimenting Burdick's rebounding despite being held scoreless. "I thought we had people step up. I thought Nia Moore stepped up. Obviously Bashaara was dominating and that was our gameplan, to get it to her. I thought Jaime Nared had a great game.
Graves was virtually unstoppable in the lane, scoring a career-high 24 points while missing just two shots from the field.
"I just think I was working hard, and my teammates were getting me the ball," Graves said. "I just had the hot hand today. I wanted to help my team get the win."
She did more than just help her team scoring, she played a complete game in exactly the manner in which Tennessee needed her.
"She is an anchor for us," Warlick said of Graves. "So you understand that when she hits, when she plays well inside that is how it opens up. She needs to play the way she played and we need to get her the ball. That is what we do. We play the game inside out and we want to get our post players the ball, we always have.
"She is becoming multi-dimensional for us which helps us. I would love it if she would, both she and Massengale, will continue to score the points they score and everyone else steps up, we will be in business."
Graves' inside presence opened up Massengale on the perimeter for 18 points, her best output since scoring 26 against Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale. She scored only 19 combined points in the Lady Vols' three games in the SEC Tournament, including being held scoreless in the championship game against South Carolina.
"She got in the gym and got up a lot of shots with Coach Law, just repetition and getting confidence in her shot," Warlick said. "She is a great shooter. She didn't shoot the ball very well in SECs but I think she took the time, the two weeks off that we had and went back to the gym. When you make shots you get confidence. One thing great about her, I thought tonight she led the team, she didn't worry about her game, she led the team."
The game was not without its tense moments. Tennessee led by as many as 15 in the second half, but the Broncos' 3-point shooting kept bringing them back, closing the gap to as few as five points with 2:51 to play.
"I just think we had to stay together," Graves said. "We knew we needed stops at that time because they were coming back. We just needed to play defense. We just came together, made shots and got stops."
All of those things are lessons that Warlick hopes her team will heed heading into the Lady Vols' second-round match-up with Pittsburgh Monday night.
"When you have that and people step up, that is how you learn," she said. "Would we have learned if we had blown Boise State out? I don't know, maybe. But I thought it was a great test for us. We stepped up and finished the deal."
