Rutgers ready to test the limits of destiny Team enters Final Four believing in itself more than ever BY DOUG McKENZIE Staff Writer After the Rutgers women's basketball team beat Michigan State in the third round of the NCAA tournament, Spartan head coach Joanne P. Callie said confidently that the Scarlet Knights could beat anyone in the country. Granted, she said they would need to maintain the high level of play that they used to dominate the Spartans, but her point held true. The way Rutgers is playing, on both ends of the floor, they can beat anyone in the country. And now, following a stunning 53-52 win over Duke in the Sweet 16, and another dominating performance in a victory over Arizona State, 64-45, in the Elite Eight, which clinched the Greensboro, N.C., region, Rutgers is just two wins away from a national title. The fact that the Scarlet Knights have reached this point comes as a shock to many, since earlier this season Rutgers was labeled a work in progress. Heading to the Final Four is nothing new for head coach C. Vivian Stringer, as she becomes the first head coach to lead three different teams to the final stage of the tournament, but even Stringer is amazed at the way Rutgers has found another gear with their season on the line. "Who would believe that we're here from where we have been," Stringer said. "We're still kind of pinching ourselves. In North Carolina, amazing. I couldn't be more proud or happier for this group of young women who have worked so hard." Hard work is something Stringer spent much of the season looking for from her players, and seemingly not always getting earlier in the season. "I bet they are going to remember what it means to work hard, to believe that things were going to come together in time, and it's just a great time that it did come together," Stringer added. Against Duke, Rutgers faced the nation's top-ranked team, playing in front of what was virtually its home crowd in Greensboro. But the Scarlet Knights were not intimidated from the start and proved early on that they were ready to make a run at the national title. After hanging with the Blue Devils most of the game, Rutgers trailed by as much as 10 in the second half, but refused to quit. "We kept saying, 'Believe,' no matter how much we were down by," junior Essence Carson said after the game. "We understood that we hadn't gotten over the hump, but we couldn't tell ourselves that. We had to keep saying, 'Believe.' A lot of teams go wrong when they tell themselves they can't get over the hump. No. You have to tell yourself, 'Believe.' " Their faith in themselves paid off: a late rally got RU within striking distance in the final minutes. That's when fate, according to Stringer, took over. With Duke leading 52-48 entering the final minute of play, junior Matee Ajavon (20 points) got Rutgers within one with a three-pointer with 48.5 seconds left. Blue Devils center Alison Bales then missed a 10-foot jumper, but the rebound was grabbed by Duke forward Wanisha Smith, who then lost the ball to freshman Epiphanny Prince, who went the length of the floor and hit a lay-up with a host of white jerseys around her for what would be the winning basket. Duke brought the ball downcourt, where Carson swiped the ball from ACC Player of the Year Lindsey Harding. With 5.6 seconds left, Harding then stripped Carson's inbounds pass and drove upcourt and fired a desperation shot only to be fouled. Harding, a 75 percent free throw shooter, had an opportunity to win the game for the Blue Devils (32-1) but missed two from the free throw line with one-tenth of a second showing on the clock. Just like that, Rutgers had pulled off the upset, eliminating the nation's top-ranked team in dramatic fashion. "[This] team has believed all along that we are a team of destiny," Stringer said after the game. "All of the signs were there for us and we took that as 'all systems are go.' " Rutgers' win over Arizona State wasn't nearly as dramatic. The Scarlet Knights took control early with a suffocating defensive effort, and built up a 31-25 lead at the half. While the Sun Devils managed to keep the game close in the first half despite struggling mightily on offense, Rutgers proved to be the better team early in the second half. The Scarlet Knights used their tough defense to take command, holding Arizona State to one field goal during the first eight minutes of the second half. By dominating the boards to the tune of a 48-26 rebounding edge, Rutgers gradually increased its lead, mostly from the foul line, while the Sun Devils, who shot just under 33 percent from the field for the game, couldn't answer Rutgers' run. With 13:11 to play, Prince gave RU its first double-digit lead with a free throw, and the game was never close from there. Kia Vaughn led the way with a brilliant low-post performance, scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. "We put up a good fight," Vaughn said. "I had the advantage because I just kept working. They didn't let me get anything easy and I just kept working hard. I had elbows everywhere. I just had to be strong and take control within myself." Ajavon had 20 points, while Carson added 11 and Prince had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Scarlet Knights (26-8). Now it's on to Cleveland, where they will face LSU on Sunday in the Final Four. Rutgers will need another command performance from Vaughn on Sunday, as LSU is led by Sylvia Fowles, one of the top post players in the nation. But the truth is, Rutgers will need to be every bit as good on both ends of the floor as they were against Duke and Arizona State if they hope to earn a shot at the title. Following the Arizona State game, Stringer beamed with pride when she spoke of just how far this young Rutgers team, which has five freshmen and no seniors, has come this season. "I know I've said to you before that we were struggling at the beginning, and we are here now because of where we started from," she said. "I began to see their hard work - little things like the timing of a screen and the appreciation of the execution of the game. That was our way as coaches to be paid back and appreciated when the players say 'yeah, you taught us something and we appreciate it.' This has been a heck of a ride and I have a feeling that these young ladies want to do some things when we get to Cleveland, so we want to get back and get some rest and soak it all in." "It was like a dream," Carson said of the win over Arizona State. "We knew that if we stuck to our game plan and just continued to believe in ourselves, that we could get it done. This entire run in the NCAA [Tournament] has been unreal. But, at the same time, we understand that all the hard work we put in brought us here. "Our coaches have prepared us for this entire season," she added. "They told us that it doesn't matter where we came from. It's about where we are going. When the regional finals got here, it was as if there was no way we [could] turn back now. We also knew that in our hearts, that as along as we stay consistent, we can pull it off." And while the Scarlet Knights' critics didn't anticipate a second trip to the Final Four, Carson insists that she and her teammates were confident that they had a run in them. "In my heart, I really did believe we could do it," she said. "I could tell that if we could get it together, we could be really dangerous. Once everyone started to step it up on defense, that is when it started to become a reality." Now that Rutgers is just two wins from a title, Stringer is beginning to put this tournament run in perspective, in terms of the highlights of a 30-plus-year career. "This has to be right there at the top, if not the top," she said. "I say that because I have never worked with a group of young people that have had to come from such a great distance. In effect, this was a completely depleted team that we had to mold from scratch. This has been a most rewarding year." And a most unexpected dance with "destiny."