2012 Paradise Jam Tournament

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2012 Paradise Jam Tournament
Teams8
Finals siteSports and Fitness Center
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
ChampionsNew Mexico (men's)
Connecticut (women's Island)
South Carolina (women's Reef)
MVPKendall Williams, New Mexico (men's)
Breanna Stewart, Connecticut (women's Island)
Aleighsa Welch, South Carolina (women's Reef)
Paradise Jam Tournament

The 2012 Paradise Jam was an early-season men's and women's college basketball tournament. The tournament, which began in 2000, was part of the 2011-12 NCAA Division I men's basketball season and . The tournament was played at the Sports and Fitness Center in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, New Mexico won the men's tournament, in the women's tournament Connecticut won the women's Island Division and South Carolina won the women's Reef Division.

Men's Tournament[]

New Mexico's Demetrius Walker drives against Connecticut's Enosch Wolf at the 2012 Paradise Jam Championship game

The 2012 Paradise Jam featured some close games. ESPN predicted that UConn would face New Mexico in the finals, which did happen,[1] but the results were far from ordained. In the first round, the largest victory was a seven-point win by New Mexico over the University of Illinois at Chicago. Connecticut beat Wake Forest by six, While George Mason, behind at the half, came back to win by three points over Mercer. However, the Quinnipiac – Iona game was tied at the half, and tied at the end of regulation. Despite scoring 13 points in overtime, Iona fell to Quinnipiac.[2]

In the second round, the games were even closer. George Mason held a five-point lead over New Mexico with twelve seconds left, when the Lobos hit a three-pointer, then stole the ball and hit another three-pointer with under two seconds to play, to win by a single point. In the other match up, between two teams from the same state, UConn was down by double digits with five minutes to go, yet the game went to double-overtime before UConn won in the second overtime.[3] In the title game, UConn came from nine points down to take a brief two-point lead with just over two minutes to go, but gave up nine straight points, and ended up with the loss 66–60. The Lobos hit all 21 of their free throw attempts in the game and went on to win the 2012 Paradise Jam Championship.[4][5][6]

Bracket[]

* – Denotes overtime period

  5th Place Game
November 19 		Consolation 2nd Round
November 18 		First Round
November 16 		Semifinals
November 18 		Championship
November 19
                                               
       Mercer  49  
       George Mason  52  
     Mercer  36          George Mason  69  
     UIC  62          New Mexico  70  
     UIC  59
       New Mexico  66  
     UIC  86          New Mexico  66
     Iona  81        21  Connecticut  60
       Wake Forest  71  
       23  Connecticut  77  
   Wake Forest  68          Connecticut  89**
  7th Place Game        Iona  94          Quinnipiac  83     3rd Place Game
     Mercer  71      Quinnipiac  98*      George Mason  74
     Wake Forest  74        Iona  92        Quinnipiac  58

Women's Tournament[]

The woman's tournament is organized as two divisions of four teams, each playing each other in a round-robin format. First-round games were held on Thanksgiving Day 22 November, while the second and third-round games were held on Friday and Saturday, the 23rd and 24th.[7]

Reef Division[]

South Carolina's Ieasia Walker drives to the basket against DePaul's Brittany Hrynko, while Blue Demon coach Doug Bruno watches on at the 2012 Paradise Jam

In the Reef Division, DePaul was involved in two of the closest games. In their Thanksgiving match up with Florida Gulf Coast, despite twelve point leads in the first half, the Eagles were within one point at halftime. They briefly held a lead in the second half, but were behind by eight points with just over two minutes to go. They climbed back to within two, but could not take the lead, and lost 60–58.[8] In their next game against Hampton, the Blue Demons fell behind by 13 with 14 minutes to go. They tied up the game with just over a minute to go. No one scored until the final seconds, when Anna Martin was fouled with three seconds to go in the game. She missed the first free throw, but hit the second, to secure the win for DePaul 68–67.[9]

South Carolina won their first game against Hampton 45–34, and their second against Florida Gulf Coast 65–46, setting up the deciding game between the two 2–0 teams. South Carolina went on to win the game 55–46, which won the Reef Division championship. Aleighsa Welch of South Carolina was named the Reef Division MVP.[7][10]

Island division[]

Geno Auriemma at 2012 Paradise Jam

The Island Division was dominated by Connecticut, Connecticut faced Wake Forest, but the game was never close. The Huskies scored the first twelve points, and extended the margin to a 45-12 halftime score. All players saw action, and the final score was 95–34 in favor of Connecticut, with the Huskies shooting almost 69% from the floor. Dolson hit her first career three point attempt, while Stewart led all scorers with 20 points.[11][12]

In the second game of the Paradise Jam Tournament, UConn met Marist. UConn opened in full court pressure, which helped to open up a 22-9 early lead. Then the Huskies went on an 18–0 run to extend the lead. Breanna Stewart scored 20 points and recorded 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. Connecticut went on to win 81–39. The win represented the 48th consecutive in-season tournament win, a streak extending back to 1992.[13][14]

Connecticut faced 14th ranked Purdue in the finals of the Paradise Jam Tournament. Each team entered the final game with a 2–0 record. Purdue was successful beyond the arc, hitting 59% of their three-point attempts (13 of 22), but hit only six two point shots. UConn started out with an 11–0 run, and never trailed. UConn went on to win 91–57.[15][16] Breanna Stewart a freshman for Connecticut was named tournament MVP, (the first time freshman to win the award other then Maya Moore in 2007).[7][17] Kaleena Lewis was also named to the All-tournament team.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ Brennan, Eamonn. "Paradise Jam Primer". ESPN. Retrieved 24 Dec 2012.
  2. ^ "Scores for November 16, 2012". ESPN. Retrieved 24 Dec 2012.
  3. ^ Brennan, Eamonn. "Previewing the Paradise Jam finale". ESPN. Retrieved 24 Dec 2012.
  4. ^ "Lobos down Huskies to win Paradise Jam". FoxNews.com. Retrieved 26 Dec 2012.
  5. ^ "Complete Play-By-Play". ESPN. Retrieved 24 Dec 2012.
  6. ^ "2012 Paradise Jam Bracket" (PDF). Basketball Travelers, Inc. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  7. ^ a b c d "Tournament History & Statistics". Basketball Travelers, Inc. Archived from the original on 2013-01-25. Retrieved 23 Dec 2012.
  8. ^ "Complete Play-By-Play". ESPN. Retrieved 23 Dec 2012.
  9. ^ "Complete Play-By-Play". ESPN. Retrieved 23 Dec 2012.
  10. ^ "2012 Women's Tournament Scores and Brackets". Basketball Travelers, Inc. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  11. ^ "Wake Forest Box Score". ESPN. Retrieved 26 Nov 2012.
  12. ^ "Wake Forest Play by Play". ESPN. Retrieved 26 Nov 2012.
  13. ^ "Freshman Breanna Stewart scores 20 in UConn's romp". ESPN. Retrieved 26 Nov 2012.
  14. ^ ALTAVILLA, JOHN (November 23, 2012). "UConn Overwhelms Marist, 81-39". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 26 Nov 2012.
  15. ^ "Purdue Box Score". ESPN. Retrieved 26 Nov 2012.
  16. ^ "UConn wins Paradise Jam by plastering Purdue". ESPN. Retrieved 26 Nov 2012.
  17. ^ "UConn wins Paradise Jam by plastering Purdue". Basketball Travelers, Inc. Retrieved 23 Dec 2012.
  18. ^ "2012-2013 SCHEDULE". UConnHuskies.com. Archived from the original on 2 August 2009. Retrieved 30 Sep 2012.
  19. ^ "2012-2013 SCHEDULE". GoDeacs.com.
  20. ^ "2012-2013 SCHEDULE". PurdueSports.com.
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