SOUTH BEND, Ind. – With one minute and 31 seconds remaining,
Kindell Fincher checked out of the Bethune-Cookman basketball line-up for the final time.
Chasimmie Brown followed.
Then
Angel Golden.
Their exit was from the Purcell Pavilion in the Joyce Center on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, the home of the defending National Champion Fighting Irish women's basketball team in the first ever Lady Wildcat appearance in the NCAA tournament.
No, it wasn't from the Scope in Norfolk, Va., after a disappointing show in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament.
It wasn't from a WNIT venue, which are nice, but not quite the ending any team really wants.
It isn't how you start. It's how you finish.
In this case, it's WHERE you finish. Go out in style.
It's a thing all BCU teams have felt. Four years ago, tennis player Marina Sablina delighted in that her career didn't end at the MEAC tournament but rather against a nationally-ranked Florida team instead. Ditto for last year's softball team noting their final post-game meeting was in Gainesville and not in Ormond Beach. Assistant Coach
Demetria Frank noted that her final game was a soul-sucking opening round loss on a Monday just two hours after the tournament started. Now she was saying goodbye to players who got her to "The Dance" as a coach.
How was that moment Saturday? Look at the pictures. All that joy. Can you even begin to tell that Notre Dame was up 40?
"You know, I actually felt good," Golden said about walking off the court. "Yeah, we took an `L', but we did it on the biggest stage against the best team in the country."
Golden's storied career finished with her 30
th 20-point outing, a game-high 25. Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale, regarded as only the best women's college player currently on the planet, registered 23. Golden had both UND coach Muffet McGraw and ESPN commentator Tamika Catchings, who only played for Pat Summitt at Tennessee and 15 years in the WNBA, giving the Wildcat senior props for balling out.
"A lot of satisfaction," Golden said. "It proved I can hang with anybody. I knew I could before, but now…"
While Golden dropped six three-pointers, Brown was not having as much fun inside with a Notre Dame team that would give the BCU MEN'S team match-up problems. These ACC teams can recruit Amazons, Valkyries and probably a Wakandan or two, you know.
Brown finished with only five boards, but let the record state that the senior sank both of her final two free attempts.
"Last week at the MEAC was good," Brown said. "Creating history is better. We got to dance."
Fincher was a late arrival to the program as a graduate transfer from Xavier, but got some press conference podium time thanks to being an Indiana native. Her cheering section was actually one of the loudest wearing Maroon and Gold.
"I got to share the moment with my family and my Bethune-Cookman family," Fincher said.
The rest of Fincher's BCU family had a moment or two as well. Sophomore
Amaya Scott finished by matching her career high of 12 rebounds, again, against
Notre Dame. Camary Harris ran the point to conclude her solid freshman run.
Armani Walker,
Amani Ball,
Tania White,
Alyssa Jones made it so all nine players got their name in the scorebook – a fact that the coaches enjoyed almost as much as they scored more points than three ACC teams did on the Fighting Irish during the regular season. It was also a better showing than two games during that time they were trying to figure out how to deal with all the injuries, trials and tribulations.
Actually, the moments to share started as soon as the team bus returned from Norfolk last Sunday.
Some folks at ESPN did everything they could to ruin Selection Show Monday – one by airing "First Take" in its regularly scheduled time slot and another, probably a low-level producer who probably accidentally hit a wrong button that resulted in the women's entire bracket going on camera four hours before the Selection Show was supposed to begin.
Ninty-nine percent of the basketball community gnashed their teeth, rented their coats and other Old Testament rituals since a grand basketball tradition was ruined.
BCU's went on as scheduled. No one noticed. No one cared.
Everyone gathered together. Ate. Celebrated. Sat through a boring analysis of another regional. Jumped and cheered when the logo came on the screen. And danced. Oh, did they dance.
The next big step was travel day. No bus ride to Orlando International. Charter flight from Daytona Beach. Picture a basketball team in a hangar when the doors open revealing their plane on the tarmac. Welcome to the life.
Friday was a tour of Notre Dame's football stadium for the administration and media and practice day for the team. Now, Golden is usually loquacious among the team and on campus, but this time at the press conference she was like T'Challa when he saw Gemma in the early moments of Black Panther ("An antelope in headlights…"). It was actually adorable.
Then Head Coach
Vanessa Blair-Lewis delivered the quote of the day when asked to compare her team with Notre Dame.
"Notre Dame has about eight McDonald's All-Americans, and we have about eight kids that like to eat at McDonald's," she quipped to end her media availability.
"That'll be viral by 4 o'clock," everyone agreed. It was on the New York Times' web site and on the Washington Post's at 5 p.m.
Practice included ESPN prep… and a way to get the injured
Ashanti Hunt some airtime. Catchings' broadcast partner Courtney Lyle does a segment where players teach her a dance step. Who else but Hunt to coach Lyle through something called "The Dirtbike?" That went viral as well.
It was the day everyone got to see what the view from the top of the mountain was like.
The next day was the reminder from those already there what it takes to stay there.
Didn't feel like that much of a loss, though. Look at the photos.
First trip to the NCAA.
Of many.
Let's go back.
