CLEVELAND -- The last time Tennessee met North Carolina in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament was a momentous season for the Lady Vols.
No. 1 ranked, unbeaten UT advanced to the 1998 Final Four with a 76-70 victory over the Tar Heels at the Mideast Regional in Nashville. The Lady Vols would go on to complete an unprecedented 39-0 season and win Pat Summitt a sixth national championship, the third in a row by the Chamique Holdsclaw-led team.
In tonight's Cleveland Region title clash, tip at 7:04, Tennessee (31-4) has a chance to do what UNC could not do in 1998, unseat the tournament's top seed and bump the Tar Heels (32-1) from an all-but-conceded national title.
"Physically, they were imposing," Summitt said of coach Sylvia Hatchell's 1998 squad, but could just as well have been speaking of her own 2006 team. "I thought they were the most physical team we'd played all year long.
"Throughout the course of the game, our team finally had to step up and match the intensity and physical play because for at least 30 minutes, (the Tar Heels) had the upper hand. I remember their toughness and I see it in this team. Sylvia brings that out in all these kids."
For that reason, Summitt expects a similar contest in tonight's game that will send one team to Boston and the other home.
Hatchell, who was still recovering Monday from the shock of narrowly avoiding an upset by Purdue on Sunday afternoon, hasn't thought too much about going up against her close friend Summitt or Tennessee, but she knows the Lady Vols' size will be a factor.
"I told our team earlier this season that we would probably end up playing them at some point," Hatchell said. "I just didn't expect it this soon. I thought we'd be playing them in the Final Four, not a regional. They're very big."
Junior guard Ivory Latta, who scored the winning shot against Purdue and suffered a leg cramp that prevented her from celebrating the victory with her teammates, will be Tennessee's primary target defensively.
Summitt compares Latta to former LSU point guard Tameka Johnson but with more scoring punch.
"I think she's more offensive-minded and aggressive," Summitt said of the diminutive UNC point guard. "Tameka was good at getting other people involved and Latta does that too but she also has a scoring mentality."
The Lady Vols hope to slow Latta by putting defensive specialists Nicky Anosike and Alexis Hornbuckle on her. Both UT players are bigger than Latta and have been designated stoppers this season. Anosike was primarily responsible for holding Cappie Pondexter in check in the win over Rutgers on Sunday.
"We're going to try to contain her in every way possible," Tennessee senior Shanna Zolman said of the Tar Heels' leading scorer. "Nicky Anosike is our best defender and Lex is also a great defender and they're going to get the brunt of the work in doing that. But it's definitely going to be a team effort trying to defend her off the dribble and to keep her from doing the things she wants to do."
On the North Carolina side, matchups will be problematic as they have been for most of Tennessee's opponents this season, especially in the paint, where the Lady Vols can rotate Candace Parker and substitute Tye'sha Fluker, Anosike and Sybil Dosty. With forward Sidney Spencer at shooting guard and Parker starting at three, it's a physically imposing lineup.
"I don't care who I'm guarding," Latta says. "We just need to go out there and play basketball."
But Hatchell is a bit more focused on the Parker Effect.
"She's a great player. We're going to give her different looks. We may put two or three people on her at one time," she said.
"We've played against some great players this year, like (Monique) Currie at Duke. So we'll give her different looks. Whatever it takes."
Summitt believes Tennessee's edge will have to be in ball control and rebounding, areas that can keep North Carolina from turning the game into a track meet.
"You have to control the defensive boards if you want to win at this stage," Summitt said. "I'm concerned about ball control and being on the boards. That's a way you can control the tempo of a game."
On TV
Tennessee vs. North Carolina
Cleveland Region Championship
7:04 p.m., ESPN
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