Tina Charles had her worst game of the NCAA tournament offensively in the regional semifinals against fourth-seeded California Sunday. She managed just five points on 2-of-5 shooting in 23 minutes after scoring a combined 54 points on 82.1 percent shooting in the first two rounds.
But in looking beyond the final numbers, Charles walked away with her best game from a mental standpoint. And it might have been the best game of her career.
Charles picked up her second foul with 15:17 left in the first half. Coach Geno Auriemma sat her down for the rest of the half with 14:07 left. In the past, this would have ruined her for the rest of the game. But that was hardly the case as Charles responded with a strong second half performance.
“I know the past two years I would’ve tanked it,’’ Charles said. “It would have been really different, but this year is different. I just wanted to be mature. We have underclassmen that are on the bench and I didn’t want to show that when you pick up two fouls it’s the end of the world. And you still pick it up the next half because it’s a whole brand-new half. That’s just what I wanted to do.’’
Charles produced two points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 17 minutes in the second half. And she only picked up one more foul.
She finished with a total of eight rebounds and three blocks in the game. Auriemma made it a point to tell Charles how proud he was of her resiliency.
“I thought Tina made a tremendous jump in the way she played,’’ Auriemma said. “I think she was really disappointed in the first couple of fouls. And she had a different look on her face. Sometimes when that would happened in the past she would sit there like staring into space feeling like `I don’t know what to do.’ This time, there was this look on her face, `I know what to do when I get back in there, and I’m going to do it.’’’
There have been 4,167 tickets sold for tomorrow’s regional final. The capacity of 8,455.
Rich
