Lady Vols have fun with winning attitude

KNOXVILLE — When Alexis Hornbuckle looked up at the clock and saw just a few seconds left, she expected to see Coach Pat Summitt motion for her to just run out the clock.

That sign never came.

So Hornbuckle avoided a defender by whipping a dribble behind her back as she crossed half-court and sprinted to the other end of the floor.

She let the ball flip off her fingers as time expired and ran on her tiptoes as the ball rattled around the rim before falling through.

The final play in the Lady Vols' 78-63 win over DePaul on Sunday earned an eruption from the Thompson-Boling Arena crowd, and a row of smiles formed on the Tennessee bench.

For the first time this season, it was fun to play basketball.

''I was having fun. I was feeling great,'' said Hornbuckle, who had 15 points and eight rebounds in her first career start Sunday.

''I just kind of went for it and hoped it went in.''

It's an attitude that the Lady Vols now admit was missing when they got pounded by Texas 74-59 on the road, when they barely escaped from games against N.C. State and Temple and when they lost a close game to Duke.

As ninth-ranked Tennessee (5-2) now prepares to go back on the road to play storied rival Louisiana Tech (4-2) today at 6:30 p.m., Summitt just hopes the energy her players had in the second half of Sunday's game carries over to the rest of the season.

''What this team has to understand is they're going to have to work hard every possession, every game to be successful,'' Summitt said. ''I think somehow they thought they could just walk out this year, show up and win. I don't know why they thought that, but that's the way it appeared.''

For the first six games of the season, Tennessee's offense was stagnant.

While the defense was good for the most part, a lack of focus on defense cost the Lady Vols a win against Duke in the final minutes.

Tennessee had shot just over 31 percent in its previous three games before shooting 57.1 percent in the second half against DePaul.

''When you're in a slump like that, everybody's spirits are not as high as they should be,'' Hornbuckle said.

''You kind of feel like, 'Dang, I'm in the gym again.' Instead of, 'This is my opportunity to get better and make up for the mistakes.' We took it all the wrong way while we were losing.''

Senior forward Shyra Ely said she hopes the attitude has changed for good.

''We knew that during the game, that it was just a lot more fun,'' Ely said. ''That's how it's going to be if you're playing together and you're doing the right things defensively, you're going to have fun doing it.

''You don't have fun when it's hard and things aren't working out.''