On March 16, a crowd of about 700 Blue Raider fans joined the Middle Tennessee women’s basketball team at Embassy Suites in finding out who the 2009 Sun Belt Conference champions faced in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament.
One player said before the bracket was revealed that the team’s goal was to make it to the Elite 8.
Junior Chelsia Lymon said she was excited about playing in the tournament for the first time in her Blue Raider career. Lymon was a member of the last MTSU team to advance to the round of 64 in 2007, but she had to sit it out due to an ACL injury she suffered earlier that season.
By the end of the night, the Blue Raiders were motivated after getting a No. 8 seed in the Berkeley, Calif., region. Their opponent was the No. 9 seed Michigan State Spartans. The only problem was MTSU had to play the game on MSU’s home court.
That night head coach Rick Insell said the team would not be intimidated having to play another road game. Earlier that season, the Blue Raiders played at traditional powers LSU, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
But by the end of the tournament game on March 22, MTSU came up just one point short; MSU won 60-59.
The Spartans’ Mia Johnson broke a 57-57 tie by connecting on a 3-pointer with 1:10 left in the game. Blue Raider junior Brandi Brown cut the lead to 1 a few seconds later. MTSU, however, was without the nation’s leading scorer, junior Alysha Clark, who had fouled out a few minutes earlier.
MTSU had a chance to win in the final 10 seconds, but they could not get a shot off in time.
“The final play was set up and we ran it just like the coach drew it up,” Lymon said in the post-game press conference. “Brandi Brown somehow didn’t catch the ball and threw it out which made the time go by a little bit faster when she threw it out. We threw it back into her, and I think she had another chance to make a shot, but she just missed the ball.”
Clark, broke a MTSU tournament mark with 34 points, including 25 in a row in the loss. The previous mark was 33 by Kim Webb in 1985.
Toward the end of the game, Clark had several shots rejected by MSU’s Allyssa DeHaan and was held scoreless.
“I expected her to be on me the whole time,” Clark said on ncaa.com. “Coach said they would probably put her on me to counter the lack of size. I know she is 6-foot-9 and I’m only 5-foot-10 so she is going to get some blocked shots. You can’t stop going at somebody just because they’re bigger.”
MTSU finished the season 28-6, and Clark averaged 27.5 points per game, which led the nation and was named Second Team All-American.
“I’m very proud of the season our young ladies had,” MTSU head coach Rick Insell said after the game. “They played hard and we hate to see it end this way.”
