NAIA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT:Lions’ dream season ends

JACKSON, Tenn. — This was supposed to be the storybook season for the Vanguard University women’s basketball team. With five starters back from last year’s NAIA Tournament semifinalist, including two NAIA Players of the Year, a 31-0 record and the No. 1 ranking held all season, another semifinal loss was nearly unthinkable for the Lions and their pride Monday night at Oman Arena.

But Renae Williams, Kiana Robinson and the rest of the Cumberland University roster, weren’t buying any of that.

Instead, Robinson, who began her career at the University of Connecticut, a women’s basketball world away from the NAIA’s little big-time, hit four first-half three-pointers on the way to a team-high 20 points.

And Williams, a 5-11 forward who said if she had ever made a game-winning three-pointer before, she couldn’t remember it, drained her fifth three-pointer of the night to produce an insurmountable lead with 12 seconds left.

The cumulative result of this convergence of the unconventional, was a 68-64 upset victory for Cumberland of Lebanon, Tenn. Cumberland (27-7), one of 15 at-large entries into the 32-team field, which lost in the quarterfinals of its TranSouth Conference Tournament, will play No. 19-ranked Lambuth for the national title today at 4 p.m. Lambuth upset No. 3-seeded Union, the two-time defending national champion, 66-64, in the other semifinal.

Vanguard, which loses four senior starters and another two seniors who came off the bench, finishes 31-1. After shaking hands with Cumberland, it retreated to a locker room filled with tears, if not regret.

The Lions, who saw No. 12-ranked Cumberland score the first five points of the game on its way to leads of 25-12 and 35-21, whittled the margin to five on Lindsey Rinke’s three-pointer with 29 seconds left in the half.

The Bulldogs scored on a putback by 5-foot-5 point guard Ashley Cross with two seconds left before intermission to claim a 37-30 halftime lead.

Yet few in the Vanguard camp were ready to panic. And, sure enough, the Lions claimed their first lead of the night, 61-59, when senior Lacey Burns connected on a straight-away three-pointer with 3:22 left. The roar from the Vanguard faithful in attendance seemed to be more of a sigh of relief.

But Williams, whose left-foot forward, right-hand-push-from-below-the-chin three-point form produced more misses from beyond the arc (six) than makes (five), answered with a three-pointer of her own just 10 seconds later.

Vanguard senior center Rachel Besse, who finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, snatched the ball away from a Bulldog rebounder and scored to put the Lions on top, 63-62, with 2:53 left.

But Vanguard, which spent all season extending leads, instead let this one slip away.

Rinke missed the front end of a one-and-one free-throw situation with 1:38 left, a pattern in the second half for the Lions, who were just four of 13 from the line after intermission. Vanguard made seven of eight foul shots in the first half.

Rinke, a junior, was in the game only because junior Jessica Richter, this season’s NAIA Player of the Year, fouled out by collecting a pair of reach-in fouls 20 feet from the basket within four seconds, the latter with 8:09 left in the game.

The two teams remained scoreless until 1:08 left, when Cumberland junior reserve Isabelli Cunico, who had missed both of her three-point tries and six of her seven field-goal attempts to that point, sank a three-pointer from the right wing with 1:08 left. Cunico was in the game only because Robinson was carried to the bench with what is believed to be a torn Achilles’ tendon with 4:38 left.

Besse, who has struggled on what Davis calls “chippies” — layups and short jumpers within five feet — all tournament, missed a pair of short inside shots, then fouled on the second rebound, giving Cumberland possession with 42 seconds left and a 65-63 lead.

With 12 seconds difference on the shot clock, Davis instructed his defenders to await an attack on their trademark two-three zone.

The attack never came. Instead, Cross, who had dribbled away most of the 30 seconds allotted for her team to shoot, whipped a desperation pass from near midcourt to the left wing to Williams, who had a defender charging toward her with a hand in her face.

Williams, unaffected by the defensive pressure, converted at the shot-clock buzzer for a 68-63 lead with 12.7 seconds left.

Burns was fouled while attempting a three-pointer with 3.9 seconds remaining, but made only one free throw.

Cumberland rebounded the final miss, ran out the clock, and began to celebrate.

“I think it was probably the biggest shot I’ve ever made,” said Williams, who helped Cumberland finish 11 for 26 on three-point attempts. “I knew we needed a big shot and, with [Robinson] out, coach challenged me to hit a big shot. The ball just fell in my hands and I shot it.”

“Renae Williams is a shooter, man,” Cumberland Coach Clint Mason said. “When she gets her feet set, she’s one of the deadliest three-point shooters that I’ve ever coached.”

Robinson, who said she learned under Diana Taurasi at UConn, finished five of eight from three-point range.

“We just have never been in that situation all year; being down early in a game like that,” said Davis, whose team defeated its regular-season opponents by an average of more than 29 points. “Sometimes not having close games can come back to bite you.

“I was happy with how we fought back. I thought we showed a lot of fight.

“The bottom line is, they got 14 more shots than us and we had 20 turnovers. That’s the first time in a long time that I can remember us getting 20 turnovers and 11 assists. We lead the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio.

“But give them credit. They made some tough shots.”

Despite the loss, Davis said he will forever cherish what this team and these seniors accomplished.

“I’m not disheartened or disappointed one bit,” Davis said. “I’m very proud. We had one bad game the whole year, we just picked the wrong time. Those girls in that locker room accomplished some amazing things on and off the court. The only thing I’m disappointed with, is that I won’t have the chance to coach this team again.”

Kelly Schmidt, a senior and four-time All-American, echoed Davis’ feeling of pride in her Vanguard team.

“I thought we came together well, especially with Jess fouling out with eight minutes to go,” said Schmidt, who led the Lions with 22 points and 13 rebounds. “I’m really proud of our team and how we handled ourselves.

“[The Bulldogs] hit the tough shots when they needed to. You’ve got to give them credit.”

NAIA TournamentCumberland -- Robinson 20, Williams 15, Humes 12, Hall 8, Cross 6, Cunico 5, Ruis 2.

Semifinal

Cumberland 68, Vanguard 64

3-pt. goals -- Robinson 5, Williams 5, Cunico 1.

Fouled out -- Hall.

Technicals -- None.

Vanguard -- Schmidt 22, Besse 17, Richter 11, Burns 9, Goold 2, Rinke 3.

3-pt. goals -- Schmidt 2, Burns 2, Rinke 1.

Fouled out -- Richter.

Technicals -- None.

Halftime -- 37-30, CU.