Eastern Regional Final - 1990 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball

1990 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament

Eastern Regional Final

Mar 24, 1990

Norfolk, VA

Tennessee vs. Virginia

I found this game on YouTube. The picture quality wasn't perfect but it was good enough for me. The resolution of the image wasn't good enough to watch the game full screen size. The video was 2 hours and 30 minutes and looks like it was a videotaped copy. It included all the commentary plus the halftime show and commercials. I fast forwarded through most of the commercials.

TN was the defending national champions and going for its third national title overall. These two teams has played 5 times before, all in the NCAA tournament. TN won all five of those games. The previous one was in the Sweet Sixteen in 1989. TN won that game 80-47. This was a much closer game.

Even though I knew what the outcome of the game would be I didn't know exactly how it would play out. I didn't know who would have the lead at halftime or who would come back to send the game to overtime. I knew that VA had a star in Dawn Staley who would go on to play for the US Olympic team and in the WNBA.

It was a real nail biter. I really enjoyed watching it. I used to watch a lot of men's college basketball around the time the time this game was played. I can't recall ever watching a women's college basketball game. I also didn't have cable TV at this time and the game was broadcast on ESPN.

The Game

TN opened strong and had the lead for the entire 1st half. The Lady Volunteers biggest lead was 7 points but VA cut it down to a 1 point lead at half time.

The 2nd half opened with VA taking the lead early. The Cavaliers were up by as many as 7 but TN came back. The Lady Vols took the lead and were up by 4 but VA came back and retook the lead. The Cavs were up by 4 late in the game but then they went cold. TN scored the last 4 points of the 2nd half. The two teams were tied at 70 at the end of regulation.

TN score the first point of the OT but after that VA took the lead and kept it, winning in the end by 4, 79-75.

The Cavaliers went on to play Stanford in the next round, the semifinals. Stanford won that game by 9 in regulation and went on to win the title.