ARTICLE TOOLS

E-mail story

Comments

Printer friendly version

iPod friendly version

Share This

Text Size: A A A A

Painful advance

By: Darren Epps

Included in this article

OKLAHOMA CITY — There are games, indelible games, enduring games, that can define a player and embed themselves in the minds of every spectator. Michael Jordan scoring 38 points with the flu in the 1997 NBA Finals was one.

There was another one Tuesday night at the Ford Center: one game, one moment the players on Tennessee’s bench will never forget. Candace Parker, her left shoulder gruesomely dangling from its socket, according to freshman Angie Bjorklund, screaming, “Get it! Get it! I’m going back in!”

She did, and she helped Tennessee beat Texas A&M 53-45 and advance to the NCAA Women’s Final Four to play LSU. Parker dislocated her shoulder twice — not sublux it like she did against Purdue — but still played 30 minutes and scored 26 points.

“I’ll be OK,” Parker said. “I’m definitely going to rehab it and get the strength back in it. When it subluxes, it’s all right and I’m like ‘Whatever,’ because it just pops right back in. This time, it went out and stayed out.”

Tennessee players and staff cheer during the final seconds of the NCAA women's basketball tournament Oklahoma City Regional final against Texas A&M, Tuesday, April 1, 2008, in Oklahoma City. Tennessee won 53-45. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Parker did not stay out. She returned with 10:39 left in a 36-36 game and didn’t leave the floor until she was wearing a “Final Four” hat.

After some initial hesitation, an airball and watching her team fall behind by five points, Parker ignored the pain in her shoulder and willed Tennessee to the Final Four.

Her free throws gave the Lady Vols (34-2) a 43-42 lead with 3:44 remaining, and they never trailed again. She added two more free throws to extend the lead to three, then grabbed back-to-back rebounds after Texas A&M misses.

She also blocked a shot and, in trouble as the shot clock wound down with less than a minute remaining, passed the ball to Alexis Hornbuckle 24 feet away from the basket.

“I saw there were three seconds left on the shot clock,” Hornbuckle said, “and I realized I had to take the shot.”

Hornbuckle drilled it — the biggest shot of her career, she said — and Tennessee led 48-43 with 50 seconds remaining. The game all but ended, fittingly, with the ball in Parker’s hands, and she drained one more free throw just before embracing Alberta Auguste as the horn sounded.

“Candace is amazing,” Tennessee athletic trainer Jenny Moshak said. “She’s absolutely amazing.”

Moshak spent the first part of the second half with Parker after she dislocated the shoulder for the second time. The reason she couldn’t immediately obey Parker’s command to let her back in the game, she said, was because the trainers couldn’t find a sleeve.

Auguste suffered the same injury earlier in the year and had an extra sleeve in her bag. She said the sleeve was on the team’s first bus, but no one could find it. Coach Pat Summitt said she was ready to start firing people at that point.

But Auguste’s bag was moved to the second bus because there was too much luggage on the team bus. The trainers finally located the sleeve and rushed it to Parker.

“We don’t travel light,” Moshak said.

The sleeve is worn to remind the muscles around the shoulder to work. It also allowed Parker to work, and she scored almost half of Tennessee’s points.

“I thought she showed a lot of effort playing with that shoulder of hers, because I know she was in a lot of pain,” Texas A&M coach Gary Blair said. “But we were in a lot of pain trying to guard her, too.”

Summitt knows the feeling. Before the SEC tournament, she dislocated her shoulder chasing a raccoon off her porch.

“It is a very painful injury,” Summitt said. “I can’t imagine doing it twice. Obviously, Candace is much stronger than Coach Summitt.”

Some players credited Parker, named an All-American earlier in the day, as the most valuable player. Others said Moshak deserved MVP honors.

But Auguste can’t be forgotten.

“You know,” she said, “it’s a good thing I brought my extra brace.”

Comments