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First win

Maine defeats Stanford for school's first NCAA win

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Posted: Friday March 12, 1999 08:09 PM

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Unable to see the clock as it raced toward zero, Maine coach Joanne Palombo-McCallie didn't know the status of the biggest victory in the program's history until the surge from behind her hit.

"I felt the bench coming from behind me," Palombo-McCallie said Friday night after Maine used two free throws by Martina Tinklova with 16.7 seconds left to beat Stanford 60-58 in the first round of the women's East Region.

"I got jumped on, I think by a few of my assistant coaches," the seventh-year coach said. "... I was hoping they were right."

On the court, the jubilant Black Bears were in jiggling heaps as they celebrated the program's first victory in five trips to the tournament.

"Its a great first step," Palombo-McCallie said of her team, seeded 10th and now 24-6. "I'd like the second step to come Sunday, but we'll have to see if we can get them calmed down enough to get ready to play again."

The Black Bears three times pulled ahead of the Cardinal (18-12), and each time saw their lead shrunk to nothing, the last time on two free throws by Carolyn Moos with 41.8 seconds to play. The shots, Moos' first points of the game, made it 58-all and set up the final sequence.

After Jamie Cassidy's drive came up short, Tinklova rebounded and was hacked. Pumping her fist after the whistle sounded, she made both free throws. Maine finished 13-for-13 from the foul line in the second half.

"We didn't really have our total A-game," Palombo-McCallie said. "There were bits and pieces of A-game, and one of them was Martina."

Tinklova finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Stanford immediately headed back up court and worked the ball to Regan Freuen, whose driving baseline jumper with about 2 seconds left missed, and when the ball was knocked around underneath, the celebration was on.

"It was a good look," said Freuen, who scored 13 points and hit three of Stanford's 11 3-pointers. "I was open. It just came up short."

The Black Bears, dispatched in the first round of the tournament in each of the last four years, thus earned the right to play either fifth-ranked Old Dominion or Tennessee Tech in the East Regional second round Sunday.

Cassidy led Maine with 15 points despite missing 15 of her 19 shots, Kristen McCormick added 13 and Amy Vachon 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. The Black Bears outrebounded the Cardinal 43-36.

Lindsey Yamasaki led Stanford with 24 points, 18 of them coming on 3-pointers. She was 8-for-16 from the field, the rest of the team 9-for-42.

"We just fell short in a lot of areas," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. The loss marked the second year in a row the Cardinal didn't make it past the first round. Last season at home, they were shocked 71-67 by Harvard to become the first top seed in tournament history to lose its opener.

 

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