National
semifinal game stories
Friday, March 16,
2001
Washington
U. 78,
Emmanuel 62 DANBURY ,
Conn. — Held scoreless for the first 15 minutes, Bears' senior Tasha Rodgers showed why she
will be a D3hoops.com First Team All-American as she scored 24 points over the next 25 minutes to carry the Bears to a 78-62 win over Emmanuel in the NCAA Tournament national semifinals Friday night. The Bears will play the winner of the second semifinal between Messiah and Ohio Wesleyan in Saturday night's national championship game.
The Saints led throughout the first 15 and a half minutes as the Bears struggled to contain Emmanuel's quick, athletic guards. Trailing 27-25 with 4:31 left, though, Rodgers finally cranked it up. She scored seven points to key a 15-5 half-ending run that sent Washington U. into the
locker room with a 40-32 lead. Robin Lahargoue tallied six points over that same stretch as the Bears featured a balanced attack. Sara Ettner had nine first-half points, Rodgers had seven and Lahargoue and Jennifer Rudis scored six each.
The run continued to open the second stanza as Rodgers converted a pair of three-point plays to key an 8-0 run that pushed the margin to 48-32 with 16:59 left. Emmanuel responded with a run of their own, this time 8-2, to cut the margin to 50-40 with 14:10 left. The Bears offense was steamrolling at that point, though, as a 9-0 answer pushed the lead back to 59-40 with 12:05 left and the Saints would get no closer than 15 the rest of the way.
Emmanuel got the quick start as they jumped to a 10-2 lead on a pair of long back-to-back three-pointers by Marcy Tillman. WU closed to 12-9 with a 7-2 burst, but the lead quickly jumped back to seven at 16-9. WU finally began to chip away as Ettner, Lahargoue, Meg Sullivan and Lindsey Merrill
each hit three-point shots to set the Bears up for the half-ending run.
Rodgers finished with a game-high 24 points and added a game-high five steals. Lahargoue tallied a career-high 20 with five rebounds and Ettner had 13 points and a game-high eight assists. Rudis had six points and eight rebounds and Sullivan had seven points. Tillman led the Saints with 23 points and Brianne Bognanno had 18. Washington U. shot
47% for the game, while holding Emmanuel to 42% and just 37% in the second half.
The win stretches WU's NCAA Division III Tournament-record winning streak to 19 games and ups the Bears record on the season to 27-2. Washington U. is looking to become just the second team in NCAA women's basketball history to win
four consecutive national titles. Only Division II North Dakota State has accomplished the feat, winning four in a row from 1993-96.
