Lady Vol Basketball - Practice Report

Monday's game against Georgia will be televised nationally on ESPN2

Jan. 28, 2005

Five games into Southeastern Conference play, Tennessee climbed up to No. 5 in the AP poll. However, after a hard-fought 68-53 victory at South Carolina, the Lady Vols are not taking a break and have refocused their efforts at the defensive end of the floor.

"Today we did a lot of defense, and I think tomorrow we will too because defense wins games," senior guard Shyra Ely said. "With a team like Georgia, it's imperative we play really good defense."

The Lady Vols will try and shut out Georgia's star freshman, forward Tasha Humphrey, who scored 21 points in the team's 81-61 win over Florida on Thursday night.

"She has had the scorer's mentality, and she wants to be the go-to player," said Lady Vol head coach Pat Summitt. " She has established herself as that, which makes Georgia a lot better now in terms of quickness and depth. She is a tough player to defend one-on-one."

Despite Humphrey and Georgia's high-scoring guards Sherill Baker and Janese Hardick, the team feels confident it is prepared to face the Lady Bulldogs.

"We had some tough road games, and for that reason I don't think we could be any more prepared to play Georgia and Florida," Summitt said.

Tennessee has just nine games left in the regular season before heading to Greenville, S.C., for the SEC Tournament to be held March 3-6.

The Lady Vols will be back in action again when they face Georgia on Monday at 7 p.m. at Thompson-Boling arena. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.