Notable Events
The Alabama team was a six seed in the Midwest region. After beating the 11 seed Oregon State, they faced a higher seed, Iowa, who were seeded third in the region. Alabama won that game, and went on to face another higher seed in Texas Tech, the defending national champions. Alabama won again, and went on to face Penn State, the top seed in the region. Alabama won yet again, this time by 14 points, to advance to their first final Four.
In the semi-final game of the Final Four, they faced Louisiana Tech, a team they had played earlier in the year. In their December match-up, Alabama had beaten the Lady Techsters by 22 points, 99–77. In this game La tech opened up a six point lead at the half. Alabama's All-American guard Niesa Johnson cut her hand on a locker room sink, which required seven stitches. Because it was such an important game, Johnson was bandaged and medicated and returned to the game. The Alabama team fought back from an eleven pint deficit and cut the margin to two points with seconds to play. The plan was to get the ball to Betsy Harris to attempt a three point play, but Harris stepped out of bounds. After a made free throw, they had one more chance with a three point attempt but it failed, and La Tech moved on to the championship game.
In the other semifinal game, the North Carolina team faced Purdue. North Carolina's Charlotte Smith was expected to be an important key to the game, and the Purdue coach, Lin Dunn, tried to prepare the team to handle Smith. That planning was ineffective, as Smith scored 23 points, and set a personal career records for assists with eight. The Purdue team was down 13 points in the first half, but fought back and managed to take a two point lead in the second half. However, the Tar Heels switched to a zone defense after made baskets, and retook the lead, ending up with an 89–74 victory, and the first North Carolin team to make it to the Championship game.
In addition to Charlotte Smith, North Carolina had a freshman guard Marion Jones who would later be known for world class performances in track and filed. Jones picked up her third foul only six minutes in the game and had to sit. This "rattled" the North Carolina team but they kept the game close. When the game drew to a close, the La tech team had a two point advantage with less than a second on the clock, but North Carolina had the ball. With 0.7 seconds left, there was just enough time to catch and shoot. The ball was in bounded to Charlotte Smith who had made only eight three points on 31 attempts during the season. Smith launched the ball, but never saw what happened as her vision was blocked. Her teammates mobbed her, and she realized she had hit the shot to complete one of the most dramatic finishes in NCAA Championship history. North Carolina won the Championship 60–59.
Read more about this topic: 1994 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or events:
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