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Going into this game we all knew that Wofford had an uphill battle against a team that played the best defense in the country. However, it was not because of a lack of heart and effort. Wofford would come with the belief they could win this game and would give Tennessee everything they had. While the score wouldn’t reflect it, this was a game that Wofford was in until the end.
Wofford began the game knowing that if they had any hopes of winning it would be by shooting well from the three point line. Knowing that the size of Tennessee would make it difficult to get anything down low they would fire up three’s and making a pair early on by Bailey and Sivills. The Wofford defense would confuse Tennessee in the beginning and Wofford would start out the first couple minutes trailing 8-6. After a timeout Tennessee would go on an 11-2 run to take a commanding 17-8 lead and this would be the beginning of the Chaz Lanier show.
After going down 22-8 lead The Terriers would make a run which would fueld by Jeremy Lorenz and Justin Bailey’s three’s to cut the lead to 22-14. The fight of Wofford would be on full display. Everytime it looked like Tennessee was ready to pull away, The Terriers would continue to put together those runs that showed why they were able to make that magical run in the SoCon Tournament. Chaz Lanier would make a couple buckets and The Vols would again open up a double digit lead. With the score being 29-18 Corey Tripp, who had been struggling, would score a three point bucket and in a blink of an eye that Vols lead was down to 33-25. Following that 3 Corey would find a spot in the zone to make a beautiful mid range jump shot to keep the lead at 8. After trading a couple buckets we would go to halftime with Tennessee up 36-27.
The 2nd half of the NCAA tournament is when your best players show up. Sivs would get The Terriers on the board in the 2nd half to keep Wofford close. Lorenz would follow up with a 3 of his own and before you know it Wofford was only down 48-40.
Tennesse would lay the clamps down on defense and even when it looked like Wofford would one of their few offensive rebounds, the great hands of the Vols would swipe it away and turn it into points. The size of Tennesse would start to come into play as they would continue to pound the ball inside to push the lead to 13. It looked like Wofford was about out but Corey Tripp would put up a three which would be followed by a Lorenz three. With a media timeout coming up Wofford had closed the gap to 64-55. It would look like Wofford would have another run in them but Chaz Lanier would continue his career game as he would put up a pair of buckets which would open up the lead back to 13. Wofford would never quit and continue to fight all the way to the end. Wofford would show the fight that had so many fans down here rooting for them but at the end they would to Tennessee 77-62.
This was a season of peaks and valleys for Wofford but seeing them go against an SEC juggernaut and not blink is what we have been wanting to see from Wofford. They showed that even though they were barely over .500 for the season, they did belong in the tournament. The Terriers would have 4 players scoe in double figures. Sivills would lead with 15, Tripp would have 14, Jared Lorenz scored 12 off the bench and Justin Bailey round them out with 10. As this season for Wofford comes to a close this team has given us some great memories which would be highlighted by an unexpected run to become the SoCon champs. Even though the clock would strike midnight on this season tonight, Wofford should be proud. The went toe to toe with one of the best teams in the country and put forth a fight that only an undermanned 15 seed team could do. Congratulations to Coach Perry and The Terriers on this amazing season and all I can say is …………Let’s run it back next season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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