by NASHVILLE, Tenn. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – Despite a ferocious rally after trailing by 16 points in the first half, the Green Bay women’s basketball team fell 68-64 in overtime to Vanderbilt on Monday night at Memorial Gymnasium.
Just two days after cruising to a 94-66 victory at Marquette to start the season, the Phoenix showed plenty of resiliency to take perennial NCAA tournament qualifier Vanderbilt from the Southeastern Conference to the wire.
Green Bay (1-1) overcame big deficits in the first half, erased a nine-point Vanderbilt lead in the second half and then forced the extra period with two clutch baskets by freshman Allie LeClaire in the final minute.
A 3-pointer by LeClaire with 41 seconds left in regulation tied the score at 56. The Commodores came right back and regained the lead on a jumper by 6-foot-3 freshman Audrey-Ann Caron-Goudreau with 15 seconds to go. After a Phoenix timeout, LeClaire took an inbound pass from sophomore Mehryn Kraker and made a driving layup at the 6-second mark, evening things again at 58 and extending the game to overtime.
“It says a lot about the team and how we fought back,” LeClaire said. “It just speaks volumes of our team for fighting back.”
Unfortunately for the Phoenix, a tough shooting night kept it from leaving the Music City victorious in a matchup of teams knocking on the door of national recognition. The Commodores (2-0) hung on for the win as the Phoenix made only one basket in overtime — a 3-pointer by Kraker that cut its deficit to 66-63 with 26 seconds left.
The Phoenix finished the game shooting just 33.3 percent from the floor and an even worse 22.2 percent from 3-point range. Green Bay took 36 shots from long range but made only eight.
“We took a lot of shots from the arc,” Borseth said. “We did nothing in the paint. We got a lot of layup opportunities we missed, and we had a lot of wide-open 3s with good shooters that we missed. In a game like this, we needed to make ’em.”
Kraker led three Green Bay players in double figures with a game-high 17 points. Sophomore Tesha Buck (Sioux/Prairie Island Indian Community) scored all 13 of her points in the first half, and Terry had 12.
“Our kids competed, and that’s really what we wanted to do,” Borseth said. “And, when we go back and look at videotape, I’m quite certain there’s a few things we’re going to look at that we wished we had back, but we don’t have that opportunity, obviously. But, I think our kids really competed.”
The Phoenix completes its three-game road trip at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Purdue, which cracked the AP poll this week in a three-way tie for 24th.
