Shea Ralph's warning for Vanderbilt's March Madness opponents after South Carolina loss

Yahoo

07-03-2025

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Mikayla Blakes knocked down a 3-pointer with just over four minutes left in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, cutting South Carolina's lead to five points.
But Vanderbilt women's basketball didn't score the rest of the game. The No. 1 seed Gamecocks went on a 16-0 run, holding the Commodores scoreless to win 84-63 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Friday.
Vanderbilt came back from a 25-point deficit at halftime. But once South Carolina took control down the stretch, its momentum snowballed and led to a scoreless 4:22 for the Commodores to end the game.
Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph said she doesn't think it's difficult to stop that momentum, but it's "definitely not what you want" in the final minutes.
"I think it's just having resolve," Ralph said. "I would say it felt maybe a littlebit deflating ... As a coach, I'm looking out there, you see after six or eight points, it's deflation, right? We can't be that. It's basketball. It a game of runs. It's not a great time to have a run for the other team, but we have to be better and let it be 4 to 6 points and not 16. Hopefully we can take that lesson away from today."
But up until the final four minutes, Ralph saw a team that looked like itself in the second half after a bad second quarter. Vanderbilt outscored South Carolina 25-13 in the third quarter and 15-7 in the fourth before the Gamecocks scored the final 16 points of the game.
"That's the best of who we are," Ralph said. "When we played like the team played in the third quarter and most of the fourth quarter, we're a team to be reckoned with in the NCAA Tournament."
Vanderbilt is solidly in the field for the NCAA Tournament as opposed to last season when it was on the bubble. The Commodores were part of the First Four games, winning their play-in game against Columbia before falling to Baylor in the first round.
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Now, Vanderbilt is a projected No. 7 seed in March Madness. The next two weeks before the NCAA Tournament are all about preparing for a big moment like the Commodores had today, Ralph said.
"I think we'll have another opportunity like we had today. I want to make sure that we feel mentally, physically, emotionally prepared for that moment," Ralph said. "That the kids that are out there really believe in the fact they can accomplish the things we set out to accomplish in the beginning of the year. I think we're one of the best teams in the country when we play like we did today for the majority of the second half. Now we have to make sure we do that for 40 minutes."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Shea Ralph: Vanderbilt coach gives warning to NCAA Tournament teams