USA TODAY International Edition
Miami women sweep into Sweet 16
Miami coach Katie Meier can be forgiven for not following her own advice.
“I always tell my team to act like you’ve been there before. But we hadn’t,” she said Monday night, still giddy from the Hurricanes’ 70- 68 upset of Indiana, a 1- seed. “We kind of acted foolish and really happy and enjoyed it. That was a really big moment for us, and it was fun.”
Meier and Miami have earned the right to celebrate. This is the Hurricanes’ first trip to the Sweet 16 since 1992. They handed Indiana its first loss at home this season. They completed a school sweep of the Hoosiers in the second round of the NCAA Tournaments.
And they did it just six quarters after they were in danger of being run out of the tournament. Miami trailed Oklahoma State by 17 at halftime of its firstround game. When Meier went to the locker room, she didn’t have the chance to say anything because her players told her they were figuring it out.
Figure it out, they did. The Hurricanes rallied for a one- point win over Oklahoma State, then came out hot against Indiana and never let up. Miami never trailed in the game and didn’t falter even when Yarden Garzon drilled a 3- pointer to tie the score with seven seconds left.
After a timeout, Miami got the ball to Destiny Harden in the paint and she squared up for the short jumper. When it swished through, Meier and the Hurricanes couldn’t contain themselves. As her players celebrated, Meier thanked her coaches.
“And then I looked around for anyone that wanted to hug me,” she said.
“This place, the basketball that’s been played in this ( arena) – it’s emotional,” Meier said. “Basketball runs deep in my family. To beat them here, with that great crowd, and to mean so much to my team, to be able to do that is incredible.”