Harmon’s Cardinal Fall To Vols
Tagged in: Kiwis Abroad, Tall Ferns
New Tall Ferns squad member Jillian Harmon and her Stanford Cardinal team-mates did not end their season with an NCAA Championship.
Harmon had four points (2/3 FG), four rebounds, an assist and a steal in 24 minutes off the bench as two-seed Stanford fell 64-48 to the defending champion Tennessee Lady Vols in the Women’s NCAA Tournament title game in Tampa, Florida on Wednesday.
Harmon, who will join the New Zealand Tall Ferns squad in China this weekend for the Good Luck Beijing Olympic test event, could not help the Cardinal in the second half after falling behind by eight points at halftime.
Stanford’s All-American Candace Wiggins was held in check by back-to-back champions Tennessee, while their star Candace Parker had 17 points and nine rebounds. Parker and Wiggins were taken numbers one and three by the Los Angeles Sparks and Minnesota Lynx respectively in Thursday’s WNBA Draft.
Team-mates Harmon and Wiggins will meet up again in China in two weeks, when New Zealand plays the USA squad, which Wiggins will be a part of, in their fourth game of the tournament on April 23.
Harmon, who missed the end of the regular season with a foot stress fracture before returning during the Pac-10 conference tournament, averaged 6.2 points (47% FG, 58.4% FT) and 4.8 rebounds in 32 games in the 2007-08 season.
In Australia, former Tall Fern Julie Ofsofski had 16 points (6/12 FG, 4/5 FT) and nine rebounds in 33 minutes in her Frankston Lady Blues 81-60 loss to the Launceston Tornadoes in round six of the SEABL.
Kiwi Gemma Kerr posted six points (2/8 FG, 0/3 3pt, 2/4 FT) and four rebounds in 34 minutes in the Kilsyth Lady Cobras 73-68 loss to the Southern Districts Spartans, dropping them to fifth in the SEABL.
In Europe, former Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin’s CS U Mobitelco Cluj-Napoca defeated CS Otopeni 85-75 in the final game of the regular season to qualify third for the play-offs in the Romanian League, where they will meet sixth-placed Gaz Metan Medias next week.
Tall Blacks hopeful Brendon Polyblank’s BBC Monthey leveled their best-of-five quarterfinal series with SAV Vacallo at 1-1 with a 77-69 win, after losing game one 74-64.
Polyblank had a game-high 24 points in the game one loss but was held to five points in the game two win. Game three of the series is Sunday, with game four scheduled for April 16.
In Turkey, Craig Bradshaw had eight points (3/8 FG, 2/2 FT), five rebounds and an assist in 11 minutes as Efes Pilsen lost 81-77 to Pinar Karsiyaka in round 27 of the Turkish Basketball League. Pilsen remain second in the standings with three rounds remaining before the playoffs.
Mark Dickel provided 14 points (3/4 FG, 1/3 3pt, 5/7 FT), two rebounds and two assists but could not stop his struggling Mutlu Aku Selcuk University team getting routed 104-77 by Darussafaka last weekend.
