(1) Tennessee 83, Louisiana Tech 59
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Top-ranked Tennessee wasn't good enough to please Pat Summitt.
The Lady Vols were, however, much better than Louisiana Tech.
Shanna Zolman scored 21 points and Candace Parker had 18 points Thursday night to lead the Lady Vols to an 83-59 victory over Louisiana Tech and improve to 9-0 for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
"Obviously it was a win, but I didn't see a lot of things that were favorable out there tonight," Summitt said. "Our bench play was poor in the first half."
The Lady Vols took advantage of 22 turnovers by the Lady Techsters (5-3). Nicky Anosike added 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting for Tennessee. Zolman was 5-of-7 from 3-point range.
It was Tennessee's fifth straight victory in the series.
Aarica Ray-Boyd scored 15 points for Louisiana Tech. Tasha Williams had 13 and Shan Moore 10.
Tennessee shot 46.6 percent from the floor and Louisiana Tech shot 38.5 percent -- but hit 53.8 percent in the second half.
"She's really upset with (me) defensively and just how we performed defensively as a team," Zolman said of her demanding coach.
The Lady Techsters didn't arrive in Knoxville until Thursday afternoon despite leaving Ruston, La., on Wednesday morning. They were scheduled to arrive in Knoxville on Wednesday afternoon, but inclement weather forced their flight to be canceled and they traveled by bus.
It was a tight game for the first 13 minutes. Parker's layup with 14:15 left in the half gave the Lady Vols a 12-10 lead, and they never trailed again.
With seven minutes left in the half, Tennessee led 17-14 when they started a 13-0 run. Zolman's 3-pointer gave the Lady Vols a 30-14 lead with 3:30 left in the half.
The Lady Vols outscored Louisiana Tech 23-6 in the last seven minutes of the half and had a 40-20 halftime lead.
Louisiana Tech shot 23.1 percent from the floor in the first half -- hitting 6-of-26 shots -- and committed 15 turnovers. Tennessee shot 50 percent and made nine turnovers in the first half.
"Tennessee is a great team," Louisiana Tech coach Chris Long said. "They're No. 1 for a reason and they make you pay for your mistakes. We went through a stretch and didn't score, and a lot of it had to do with turnovers."
Zolman had 16 points at halftime on 5-of-10 shooting and was 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Parker scored 13 in the first half on 4-of-5 shooting and made all four of her foul shots.
"I think having Candace and Shanna and their ability to score inside and outside, that's tough," Summitt said. "Obviously they've given us a lot of stability offensively."
Tennessee built the lead to 25 early in the second half. The Lady Techsters rallied briefly with an 8-0 run, cutting it to 49-32 on Eboni Mangum's layup with 15:30 to play.
The Lady Vols were back up by 25 with just less than 10 minutes left and never threatened.
Tennessee's 40-35 advantage in rebounding wasn't enough to satisfy Summitt.
"If this team doesn't understand that is has to rebound, then someone is going to drill them and they'll figure it out," Summitt said.
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