{"id":29988,"date":"2014-03-27T18:25:07","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T22:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=29988"},"modified":"2014-03-27T18:25:07","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T22:25:07","slug":"ncaa-womans-tournament-midnight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2014\/03\/ncaa-womans-tournament-midnight\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Woman’s Tournament – Midnight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Special To The Lehigh Acres Gazette<\/strong><\/p>\n

By: Dick Allen<\/strong> Special Correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photos By: James Schubert<\/strong> Pro Image Sports Photography<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Hass on the bench<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We left you at the tip off. Their six-foot three girl vs. our six-foot three girl.<\/p>\n

Good news is\u00a0Whitney wins the tap. Bad news is we can’t score, nor can they.\u00a0It looked like there was a lid on our basket.\u00a0Back and forth\u00a0we traded missed\u00a0shots, ours deep in the paint, theirs from outside.\u00a0\u00a0Finally the first points, and we are behind.\u00a0\u00a0It was close at first, but we always trailed.\u00a0The missed lay ups and wide open 3’s and just poor shooting slowly\u00a0took its toll.\u00a0Soon we found ourselves down by 11 looking like it was on the\u00a0way to 40. Time\u00a0to call in the Calvary. Smesko reached into his bag of tricks and found Sophomore guard Stephanie Haas, an Ohio girl with a boatload of family and friends who would soon be going nuts in the stands.<\/p>\n

The Cowgirls all but took the wind out of the sails of the Eagle faithful. Things were not looking good. But there was Hass, strapping on her helmet, and putting the Eagles on her back. At one point she scored 10 straight points as FGCU closed the half on a 19-8 run.\u00a0\u00a0Inspired, Knight hit a\u00a0jumper and Cobb added 5 straight points\u00a0giving the Eagles their first lead of the game with 25 seconds\u00a0seconds left in the half.\u00a0A late Cowgirls basket tied the game at the half, 28 all.\u00a0But the fans were back in the game and so were the ladies.<\/p>\n

It looked like “Karma” was testing fan resolve. The Eagles shot just 31% from the floor and a paltry 20% from behind the arc in the first half. But with only 5 turnovers and 2 less rebounds than the taller Oklahoma squad, the Eagles were in the game, and “ol’ Mo” was on our side now!<\/p>\n

FGCU continued the momentum from the first half and before\u00a0everyone could\u00a0get back into their seats,\u00a0it was\u00a034-28. Quickly the Cowgirls call a timeout to stem the tide. It was an excellent coaching call as Oklahoma State soon tied the game at 36. Then it happened.\u00a0A layup by Atwater, consecutive three-pointers from Knight, and then Cobb joining in the run, FGCU soon had the largest lead of the afternoon, 47-40 with\u00a012:22\u00a0left showing on the clock. The lead grew to 10, 52-42, with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game. The roof was off Mackey Arena. You could not hear the person sitting next to you.<\/p>\n

In the next 1 minute and 43 seconds the air was sucked out of the Arena, quickly it was\u00a052-49. A flicker of hope with Knight’s 3 pointer put the Eagles back up 6 with6:38\u00a0remaining. But sadly, we would muster just 2 more points before end of regulation. With\u00a01:51\u00a0left in the game,\u00a0Smesko called timeout. Everyone knew\u00a0\u00a0it was time for the Calvary again.\u00a0Number 12 was coming back into the game. Haas,\u00a0fidgeting on\u00a0the bench, was ready to strap on her helmet,\u00a0and save the second half just\u00a0like she did\u00a0in the first half.\u00a0But … no Hass. OSU went up 57-55 with 47.5 seconds on the clock. We scored again to tie the game and send it into overtime. But “O’l\u00a0 Mo” had left the room.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0first 4 and one half\u00a0minutes of overtime, Oklahoma\u00a0State scored but\u00a02 points while\u00a0the Eagles scored\u00a0only 3 points. Miraculously we had\u00a0a 1 point\u00a0lead. Before the game Coach said the number 1 priority was to hold down the all-America candidate\u00a0Tiffany Bias\u00a0(14.3 avg. points per game). She had only 2 points until the clock had 30.3 seconds remaining.\u00a0She then drove the lane, and scored on a layup giving the Cowgirls\u00a0the lead 61-60.<\/p>\n

Time out FGCU. Certainly with a\u00a0half\u00a0a minute left to play, we are going to see Hass, helmet and all, run the court all the way to the rim and save the day or surely get fouled, or kick it out to Knight or Cobb, but something good is going to happen. That’s what KARMA is all about.\u00a0 But… no Hass! No last shot. No game against Perdue. No “Sweet Sixteen” matchup against number 1 seed Notre Dame. No, time has run out. The clock has struck\u00a0midnight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Special To The Lehigh Acres Gazette By: Dick Allen Special Correspondent Photos By: James Schubert Pro Image Sports Photography We left you at the tip off. Their six-foot three girl… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}