Southern Methodist Upsets Texas-El Paso For C-USA Women's Crown

By Julia M. Coleman: SPM FL Writer
Posted Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Orlando, Fla – The top two seeds in the Conference USA Women’s basketball tournament made it to the finals. Tthe University of Texas-El Paso and Southern Methodist University duked it out at the University of Central Florida arena for the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

SMU gets the bid courtesy of their 73-57 upset win over UTEP.

The UTEP Miners have the C-USA Coach of the Year in Keitha Adams, the C-USA Player of the Year in sophomore guard Jareica Hughes, and the C-USA Newcomer of the Year senior guard Natasha Lacy.

The SMU Mustangs, with head coach Rhonda Rompola at the helm, feature C-USA Defensive Player of the Year in senior forward Sharee Shepherd, as well as preseason All C-USA senior forward/center Janielle Dodds. Dodds is the second-leading scorer in SMU history.

A slow start by both teams left SMU up 2-0 after three minutes of play. C-USA Defensive Player of the Year Shepherd took a charge from Hughes and then nailed two free throws at the other end to put SMU up 4-0.

SMU led 8-5 after UTEP’s senior center Izabela Piekarska finally got the Miners on the board by dropping a 3-pointer from the top of the key, followed by a bank shot under the basket.

UTEP got another 3-pointer from Piekarska to keep them in the game at 18-10 at the first half 7:27 mark.

As the Miners continued to launch misguided three point shots, Coach Adams had seen enough and called a timeout at the 6:22 mark with SMU up 21-10.

Coming out of the break, Piekarska again knocked down the jumper for UTEP. Finally, Jareica Hughes scored on one of her patented drives, but hit the floor hard for the fourth time in the half. Hughes would drive again on their next possession, but missed the shot and had to pull herself up off the floor for the fifth time.

UTEP continued to chip away at SMU's lead, with Piekarska shouldering the offensive load. She scored on a short bank shot to get the Miners within five at 23-18 and just under two minutes to play.

Lacy got fouled driving to the hoop and nailed both free throws to cut the lead to three. SMU held the ball for the last shot and senior reserve guard Katy Cobb nailed it with two seconds left in the first half.

SMU headed into the locker room up by five at 25-20.

Piekarska had 14 of the Miners' 20 points on 6-11 shooting. Hughes was 1-8, with five turnovers, yet was the second leading scorer with four points. UTEP shot 7-for-25 from the floor in the first half.

SMU had seven players in the scoring column, none in double figures.

UTEP started the second half very aggressively with two quick scores. Hughes hit a baseline fade-away, followed by a nifty assist to sophomore forward Timika Williams.

Hughes hit the ground hard again, got up and drained a jumper at the other end. Lacy followed with a drive of her own to make it a one-point ball game.

UTEP then got a bucket from Piekarska, then another from Lacy (who got fouled on the way up) and she canned the free throw, allowing UTEP to take a 34-30 lead. UTEP had outscored SMU 14-5 at that point in the second half.

Piekarska was fouled on a drive to the basket and hit both free throws as UTEP took a six-point lead with 13:48 left to play, but SMU was back in rhythm shortly thereafter and started a run of its own.

“I felt like we were playing not to lose, to protect the lead there for a while," Coach Rampola said. "[We] didn’t push the basketball. And we came down with a couple transition baskets and once we took the lead, we got some energy.”

With Piekarska on the bench with foul trouble, Dodds got free to tie it up at 38.

SMU then took the lead again, 40-38, as Sharee Shepherd nailed a jumper.

Piekarska came back in and was immediately hit with her fourth foul with eight minutes left in regulation. Coach Adams put Piekerska back on the bench for the next three minutes.

After a flurry of three-point shots by both teams, SMU led 47-41 at the six minute media timeout.

Shepherd scored on a jumper out of the timeout and then got fouled going up on the next possession. She made both free throws for a 10-point Mustang advantage, 51-41.

Hughes canned a three, and followed that with two made free throws on UTEP’s next possession.

SMU clung to a five point lead with three minutes left in the game. Shepherd would go 8-for-8 from the line the rest of the way, and SMU would only miss one of 14 free throws to close out the win.

The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship bracket will be announced Monday, March 17. With this win, SMU will receive C-USA's automatic bid to the Big Dance, while UTEP (27-3) is hoping to receive an at-large bid.