4B | SPORTS THE DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2018

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COLD: Hayes leads Lady Vols’ comeback effort with 17

FROM 1B
back-to-back Anastasia
Hayes layups — pulled UT
within three before Miki-
ah Herbet Harrigan scored
two points to make it a five-
point game heading into the
final frame.
All the Lady Vol momen-
tum was taken away as
Wilson — who didn’t play
in either regular-season
matchups, both of which
UT won — re-entered the
game and used a three-
point play, along with one
from Herbet Harrigan to
go back up double-digits
MARK HUMPHREY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on UT.
TENNESSEE’S EVINA WESTBROOK (2) blocks a shot by South Caro- “Yeah, she’s a really good
lina’s Alexis Jennings (35) Friday in Nashville. player,” said Nared, who
was cleared by trainers to
play and notched a dou-
ble-double with 15 points
and 13 rebounds. “I think
she helped them with their
press because she is a big
body. She’s good at scoring
around the rim.
“We knew that, but our
game plan told us that she
drove left 90 percent of the
time, and I think she scored
going left every time. So,
just us paying attention to
minor details that could
have helped.”
Hayes, who scored a
team-high and career-high
17 points, converted con-
secutive three-point plays
of her own, leading the way
to come back within nine
twice on a Russell layup
and Rennia Davis triple, but
the Gamecocks stretched it
back out each time.
The Lady Vols had oppor-
tunities, shooting 30 more
shots than South Carolina
(24-6), but bucketed just
26.7 percent from the field
compared to the Game-
cocks’ 46.4 percent.
UT also forced 27 turn-
overs, scoring 26 points off
of them, while committing
just 11. Those stats — along
with 27 offensive rebounds
— look real good on paper,
leaving Warlick uneasy.
“I look at it, you look at it
and you go, how? You won-
der how we lost the game,”
Warlick said. “We didn’t do
it on just catching shoot
and jump shots away from
the basket. We attacked
the basket; the shot just
wouldn’t go.
“So I am, I don’t think we
played our best and I’m
looking at this, and I think
we could have played a lit-
tle — we could have played
better, but you got to put
the ball in the basket. And
we can create all this havoc
and everything, but we got
to score and we didn’t do
that tonight.”
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writer Lauren Moore. Write
to her at laurenm@thedaily-
times.com

Can Irish make NCAA SEC WOMEN

NO. 2 MISSISSIPPI STATE

run with Colson back? 81, KENTUCKY 58: The No.

BY AARON BEARD
AP Basketball Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. — Notre
Dame coach Mike Brey
spent the past two months
hoping his team could
somehow stay within
reach of an NCAA Tour-
nament bid until Bonzie
Colson could return from
a broken left foot.
The Fighting Irish have
arrived right on schedule.
And Colson’s return is a
potential game-changer,
assuming he’s able to
knock off any rust from
his long recovery.
The preseason Associ-
ated Press All-American
returned this week after
missing 15 games with the
injury. And he rejoins a
team hovering near .500 in
the Atlantic Coast Confer-
ence with resume-helping
games on the schedule,
starting Saturday at top-
ranked Virginia followed
by next week’s league
tournament in Brooklyn.
“The bad news is you
can lose seven in a row in
the ACC,” Brey said after
ting back a guy averag-
ing 20.7 points and 10.3
rebounds. And that will
leave the NCAA selection
committee with a tough
evaluation.
Notre Dame sits at No.
69 in the RPI and has just
a 2-7 record against Quad-
rant 1 teams, though that
includes a win against
Wichita State in the Maui
championship game in
November (Colson had
25 points and 11 rebounds)
and a win at Syracuse.
Colson had 12 points and
nine rebounds in 21 min-
utes in his return , and Brey
promised Colson’s role will
only grow.
“I’m sure a lot of com-
mittee members watched
tonight, and wanted to see
(Colson),” Brey said after
the Pitt win. “I think they
see him being productive.
He’ll only play more min-
utes. That can only help us.”
ON THE RISE: Louisiana:
The Ragin’ Cajuns (26-
4, 16-1 Sun Belt, 35 RPI)
have lost just once since
Christmas. Still, after los-
ing its only game against
2 Mississippi State Bulldogs
trailed 23-22 after one quar-
ter, and coach Vic Schae-
fer let them know how he
felt about it. A 19-2 run to
start the second quarter
showed they listened well.
Roshunda Johnson finished
with 20 points and the Bull-
dogs remained undefeated
by routing Kentucky 81-58
Friday to advance to the
Southeastern Conference
Tournament semifinals. The
Bulldogs are now 31-0, the
nation’s longest winning
streak. They are trying to
add their first tournament
title to the regular-season
championship and will play
No. 15 Texas A&M or No.
24 LSU for a third consecu-
tive spot in the final. Teaira
McCowan had 12 points and
11 rebounds for Mississippi
State. Victoria Vivians added
17 points and Blair Schae-
fer had 15, tying her career-
high with five 3-pointers.
Kentucky (15-17) ended the
SEC’s longest active streak
of trips to the semifinals at
eight straight. Coach Mat-
thew Mitchell said he wished
ROGELIO V. SOLIS | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS his Wildcats had played bet-
TENNESSEE FORWARD ADMIRAL SCHOFIELD (5) attempts a shot over Mississippi State forward Aric ter in this tournament. The
Holman (35) Tuesday in Starkville, Miss. Bulldogs used their experi-

Path to the top

Wednesday’s win against
Pittsburgh. “The good
news is when you need a
quality win, there’s one on
the schedule for you. ... So
that’s the benefit of play-
ing in this league: you’ve
got a chance to get some
scalps to get you back in
the discussion.”
Notre Dame (18-12, 8-9
ACC) is a bubble team
like few others. With the
6-foot-6 Colson in the
lineup, the Fighting Irish
won the Maui Invitational
and pushed all the way to
No. 5 in the AP Top 25 in
November. Without him,
Notre Dame suffered
through a seven-game los-
ing streak that lasted most
of January and stood at 3-7
in the ACC after a lopsid-
ed loss at North Carolina
State on Feb. 3.
Now the Irish are get-
a Quadrant 1 opponent,
they probably need to win
their league tournament
to feel safe.
Loyola-Chicago — The
Ramblers (25-5, 15-3 Mis-
souri Valley Conference,
31 RPI) had won 14 of 15
entering Friday’s game
against Northern Iowa in
the league tournament.
St. Bonaventure — The
Bonnies (23-6, 13-4 Atlan-
tic 10, 22 RPI) are roll-
ing with 11 straight wins,
including Tuesday’s 117-
113 triple-overtime win
against Davidson —
the last team to beat St.
Bonaventure on Jan. 19.
TCU — The Horned
Frogs (21-9, 9-8 Big 12, 19
RPI) are putting together a
strong finish (four straight
wins) as they approach
their first NCAA bid since
1998.
Vols eye SEC title with win over Georgia
BY TAYLOR WHITE
taylorw@thedailytimes.com
KNOXVILLE—When Tennessee
knocked off Mississippi State on Tues-
day in blowout fashion to lock up at
least second place in the SEC, all eyes
turned toward Fayetteville, Ark., where
the Razorbacks hosted Auburn.
The Tigers fell into an early hole they
couldn’t crawl out of, falling to Arkansas
for their second straight loss. That result,
combined with Tennessee’s win, put the
teams in a two-way for first place in the
conference.
Auburn holds the tiebreaker, but the
tiebreaker only determines seeding in
ence and strength to make
life tough on Kentucky. Tay-
lor Murray led the Wildcats
with 15 points. Maci Morris
and Amanda Paschal each
added 13. Kentucky took a
23-22 lead at the end of the
first quarter on a 3-pointer
by Paschal with 8 seconds
left. That was the best it
would get for the Wildcats.
SEC MEN’S BASKETBALL
WHO: Georgia at No. 16 Tennessee
WHEN: 6 p.m. Today
TV: SEC Network
RADIO: Vol Network
The Vols are 4-0 facing a team the sec-
ond time around this season and 8-1 over-
all against teams they have played twice.
The rest of those teams didn’t have Yante
Maten. Maten was one of three players
locked in a tie for preseason player of the
year, and the senior has more than lived MARK HUMPHREY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
up to the hype. TEXAS A&M CENTER KHAALIA
He’s scoring 19.4 points per game for the Hillsman (00) runs into LSU’s

League races for player the SEC Tournament, meaning a No. 16

Tennessee win against Georgia at 6 p.m.
today guarantees the Vols at least a share
Bulldogs (16-13, 7-10) while pulling down
8.8 boards. He scored 19 the first time
these two teams played, as the 6-foot-8
Yasmine Bidikuindila Friday in
Nashville.

of the year down to wire of the SEC regular-season title.

BY AARON BEARD
AP Basketball Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. — With
most of college basket-
ball’s top leagues wrap-
ping up regular-season
play, the top players have a
few days left to make their
case to be their league’s
player of the year.
Four of the five power
conferences — the Atlan-
tic Coast Conference, the
Big 12, the Pac-12 and the
Southeastern Conference
— finish schedules this
weekend along with the
Big East, while the Big
Ten has already sprinted
through a tight schedule
to hold an early tourna-
ment this week at New
York’s Madison Square
Garden.
Here’s a look at some of
the players in the running
for top honors in their
leagues:
BIG TEN: The Big Ten has
already handed out its
hardware. Ohio State’s
Keita Bates-Diop was
named player of the year
by The Associated Press
, coaches and a league
media panel after aver-
aging 19.2 points and 8.9
rebounds for the 13th-
ranked Buckeyes.
ACC: This one looks pret-
ty settled on Duke fresh-
man Marvin Bagley III.
The 6-11, 234-pound for-
ward has met all the expec-
tations as a one-and-done
prospect and possible No.
1 overall NBA draft pick.
He ranks second in the
ACC in scoring (20.7) and
first in rebounding (11.1)
for the fifth-ranked Blue
Devils, and posted the first
30/20 game — 32 points, 21
rebounds against Florida
State — in Hall of Fame
coach Mike Krzyzewski’s
38 seasons at Duke.
The closest competi-
tion might be Luke Maye
for No. 9 UNC. The 6-8
junior ranks among the
ACC leaders in scoring
(17.9 points) and is second
to Bagley in rebounding
(10.2) while shooting near-
ly 52 percent from the field
and 46 percent on 3s.
An Auburn loss at home to South Caro-
lina also locks up a share of the title for the
Vols, while a Tennessee win and Auburn
loss gives Tennessee the title outright.
“We can’t get away from what we’ve
done to build the program and grow the
program,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes
told reporters on Friday. “We’re not going
to change our approach or what we do. The
guys know what they’re playing for, and
I’ll tell you this, they have a lot of respect
for Georgia.”
It’s no secret that Tennessee didn’t have
many expectations preseason, at least from
outside the program. The Vols were picked
13th in the conference before the season
— Auburn was picked ninth — though it
quickly became clear Tennessee was bet-
ter than a second-to last-finish.
Barnes didn’t shy away from talk about
winning at least a share of the SEC, and
made it clear this was the goal from the
beginning of the season.
“This is what you play for,” Barnes said.
“You want to win championships. What
it means is our guys have worked hard,
they believed when a lot of people outside
didn’t. They’ve done the work and it hasn’t
been easy. What they’ve accomplished
up to this point is really a compliement
to them.”
To secure that honor Tennessee (22-7,
12-5 SEC) will have to get past a Georgia
team that knocked off the Vols in Ath-
ens just two weeks ago, though rematch
games haven’t been a problem for Ten-
nessee this season.
forward has become a matchup night-
mare. In addition to punishing teams in
the post, he’s hitting 33 percent of his 72
NO. 15 TEXAS A&M 75, NO.
24 LSU 69: Chennedy Carter
scored 27 points, a Texas
3-point attempts this year. A&M record in a Southeast-
“Very seldom does a guy who gets named ern Conference Tournament
preseason player of the year put up those game, Khaalia Hillsman had
numbers, but he’s done it,” Barnes said. a double-double and the No.
“You can tell his teammates love him. He 15 Aggies edged No. 24 LSU
scores inside and outside and he’s start- 75-69 on Friday in the quar-
ing to knock down the three. He’ll leave terfinals. The fifth-seeded
Georgia as an all time great player.” Aggies (24-8) secured their
Today’s game is also senior night for the fourth straight win with
Vols, though the only player being honored Carter going 6 for 6 from
is fifth-year graduate transfer James Daniel. the foul line in the last min-
After starting his career at Howard where ute, while the fourth-seeded
he led the nation in scoring two years ago, Tigers (19-9) missed three
the guard used his last season of eligibility shots before a late basket.
to join the Vols for one season. Texas A&M meets league
After being a volume shooter for a How- champion and second-
ard team that desperately needed him to ranked Mississippi State in
score, Daniel changed his game at Ten- the first semifinal on Satur-
nessee. He’s averaging 5.9 points in 20.5 day. There were 12 ties and
minutes, both career lows, but he’s made 25 lead changes. The last
his mark running the offense. lead for the Tigers came
Daniel is averaging three assists per game, with 3:55 to play on two
giving him 86 dimes on the season com- free throws by Chloe Jackson
pared to just 44 turnovers. after Danni Williams was
“He had to totally change the way he called for a deliberate foul.
played basketball the last three years,” The Aggies took the lead for
Barnes said. “He was counted on to score good on a 3-point play by
and shoot it, shoot it, shoot it, shoot it. We Hillsman at 3:14. Carter hit
told him, ‘You’re not going to be a volume a jumper at 1:40 and Ayana
shooter. You’re going to have to buy into a Mitchell countered with a
role and play defense and run the team.’ tipin for the Tigers at 1:13
That’s not an easy thing to do.” to make it 69-67 heading
into the final minute. Hills-
FOLLOW @TAYLOR_WHITE94 on Twitter for man had 17 points and 10
more from sports writer Taylor White. rebounds.