Two Over Easy

Facing PAT SUMMITT FOR THE FIRST TIME CAN BE a daunting experience for any coach, but for Marist's Brian Giorgis it ranks among the highlights of his 24-year coaching career. Six years ago Giorgis, then a New York high school coach with college aspirations, was on a family vacation in Tennessee when, on a lark, he decided to take a detour into Knoxville in hopes of getting some face time with the Lady Vols' Hall of Fame coach. Summitt, who was away from her office when he arrived, was summoned and spent 20 minutes with Giorgis. "The first thing she said to me was, 'You got any players?' " he said.

Summitt didn't recall much of the meeting until the eve of Tennessee's third-round game with No. 13 seed Marist when, while checking out television highlights of the Red Foxes, she saw a face on the Marist bench she just couldn't place. "I kept sitting there, and I thought, This guy looks so familiar. I know I know this guy," she said. "What a small world, to have Brian come by on a visit during a vacation and now we're playing each other in the NCAA tournament."

That Giorgis's Red Foxes had arrived on this stage was no small feat. A 4,000-student school in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Marist had upset fourth-seeded Ohio State and fifth-seeded Middle Tennessee State, becoming the first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference team—men's or women's—to advance to the Sweet 16 and just the third No. 13 seed to reach the second weekend in the 26-year history of the NCAA women's tournament.

If the Red Foxes were to become the lowest seed ever to make the Elite Eight, neutralizing Tennessee's 6' 4" sophomore All-America forward Candace Parker would have to be a priority. In the six days leading to the game, Giorgis had considered a variety of defensive permutations to his diminutive lineup, which averages 5' 9" and features a three-guard backcourt. His best idea? "We thought of putting Nikki Flores on Alisa Kresge's shoulders and playing a triangle-and-one," he said.

"That'd be interesting, wouldn't it?" said the 5' 4" Flores. "But I don't know if we'd be her height."

As long as the Red Foxes followed the tenets that led them to this point (namely ball security, heady play and steady three-point shooting), they could avoid having to resort to gimmickry. Of course, Tennessee had planned a few tricks of its own, the most crafty being Summitt's decision to move the 6' 3" Nicky Anosike to the perimeter—along with bigs Parker and Sidney Spencer (6' 3")—to chase down Marist's munchkins.

It was on this strategy that the game was decided. The Red Foxes' reputation as the best ball-handling team in the nation unraveled as the Lady Vols pressured them into 10 turnovers in the first half.

Then the Foxes' outside shooting abandoned them. Marist, which was hitting 45.5% from three-point range for the tournament, made just 2 of 14 attempts against Tennessee. Harassed by the Lady Vols' length, Red Foxes guard Julianne Viani, who had hit 9 of 14 three-pointers during the tournament, was 0 for 3 from beyond the arc. "Most of the shots were right there," said junior forward Meg Dahlman, who went 0 for 5 on threes. "We aren't used to playing this far into March. Our legs were giving us a lot of trouble."

And so, not surprisingly, was Parker. Her most breathtaking play came with 6:28 left in the first half, when she grabbed a deflected pass near midcourt and raced unabated to the bucket. As the crowd rose to its feet, anticipating a rare slam, Parker finger-rolled a kiss off the glass for two of her 14 first-half points.

Tennessee led by 21 at halftime and let the Red Foxes pull no closer than 15 before eventually serving them a 65–46 loss. "We knew that a lot of people wanted us to lose and their Cinderella story to continue," said Parker, who finished with a team-high 16 points, "but we just rallied around each other and said we want their story to end now."