But from the 4:04 point of the third quarter on Wednesday, the UD women’s coach was banished from the sideline of the Flyers game with VCU after accidently bumping into official Ryan Durham on the court after what replays showed was a bad call against her team.
UD, which had trailed the entire game, was down 51-39 when Flyers guard Destiny Bohanon drove into the paint and shot a short jumper that was off the mark. The ball caromed toward UD’s Shannon Wheeler and then was deflected over the baseline and out of bounds by VCU guard Timaya Lewis-Eutsey.
Ryan signaled it was knocked out by UD and would be VCU’s ball and that brought Williams-Jeter, already pacing in front of her bench, down the sideline and out near the baseline next to Durham.
He turned and he and Williams-Jeter bumped together.
He whistled a technical on the UD coach and, because of the contract, Williams-Jeter was ejected.
“I definitely came out of the (coach’s) box, but I didn’t mean to make contact,” she said. “I really apologized for that. I didn’t mean to do it. And especially not on school day when half the city is here to watch (us) and a lot of them are young kids.”
Wednesday was the UD women’s annual School Day when students from schools all over the Miami Valley are brought in for a festive affair that includes prizes, chances to meet the players and of course, the game, which this time was against the 16-2 Rams.
It is always a loud, celebratory affair and Wednesday the crowd of 12,097 set a record. The largest home crowd to see the UD women before this came at last season’s kids’ game against Saint Louis that drew 11,635.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Williams-Jeter had a less-celebrated history-maker Wednesday.
“This was my first technical ever in my history as a player or a coach,” she said.
That’s a feat that spans a stellar prep career at Chaminade-Julienne, 132 games as a college player at UConn and 219 more games in the WNBA. Then there are her 18 years of games as a college assistant coach at several top programs, along with 26 games as a head coach at Wittenberg and 46 prior games at UD.
“Now I’ve definitely got some intentional fouls for throwing elbows or something in a game, but never a technical,” she said.
When she left the court Wednesday, she said she watched part of the game in the training room, via the in-house feed that’s broadcast on screens around the Arena. Then for the rest she headed up to the Flyers dressing room in the Donoher Center.
Back on the UD sideline Flyers assistant coach Kalisha Keane took over the head coaching duties.
The players said their head coach’s ejection stirred them to perform.
“We all know the passion she has and we kind of wanted to play with that for her,” said guard Ivy Wolf.
Guard Anyssa Jones agreed: “When that happened, we rallied together. Tamika puts all her energy into us no matter what happens, no matter what the situation. We needed to rally behind her and play ‘til the buzzer We were going to fight.”
And that’s what the Flyers did.
From the time Williams-Jeter left until the end of the game, they outscored VCU, 23-21.
With 3:19 left in the game, they cut the Rams’ lead — which once had been 16 points — down to five, before fading a bit in the final minutes.
VCU won, 73-62.
The Flyers were led by Jones, who had 15 points; Wolf, who had 14, and forward Arianna Smith who added 12.
The loss dropped Dayton to 8-11 on the season.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Afterward, Williams Jeter said she apologized to her team and then she met with the media when some folks in the program thought she would not or should not.
She didn’t duck out after any game in last year’s tough 7-21 season and she didn’t plan to do so now.
She wanted to apologize again. She wanted to commend her team for the fight it showed.
She praised everyone from Keane to the emerging 6-foot-4 freshman Eve Fiala, who made both shots she took and had four rebounds and a steal in 13 minutes off the bench.
And she wanted to talk about the crowd:
“It was a great game atmosphere, and the kids get to have a lot of fun.
“Not many young people get on a college campus and get exposed to college athletics and student life, so I think for every kid to have that exposure to higher education is a huge thing.
“This is not just about a basketball game; it’s being on campus and seeing student athletes. This is good for kids. They get to see something they wouldn’t normally see.”
On this day they saw something that had never transpired before,
In almost three decades of basketball — from high school right up to Wednesday — Williams-Jeter had never gotten T’d up.
She shrugged off the fact and smiled.
“I’ll just be honest ... When I smile at the refs, they love me.”
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