Lady Vols Back In Title Game, Win 74-58

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Tennessee Lady Volunteers have wanted to win in the postseason to honor their coach. Getting revenge on a few teams is just a bonus.

Tennessee (No. 10 ESPN/USA Today, No. 13 AP) beat South Carolina (No. 25 AP) 74-58 on Saturday to advance to its 21st Southeastern Conference championship game.

"We were definitely motivated," Lady Vols senior center Vicki Baugh said. "We were fortunate to play the teams that we wanted to play. We wanted revenge. I think that was our motivation stepping into this tournament. We just wanted to prove that we were the better team."

The second-seeded Lady Volunteers (23-8) will face fourth-seeded LSU, which upset Kentucky (No. 9 ESPN/USA Today, No. 10 AP) in the other SEC semifinal. The title game will pit Tennessee coach Pat Summitt against her former player, Lady Tigers coach Nikki Caldwell.

South Carolina (23-9) had gotten a rare win in Knoxville earlier in the regular season, but Tennessee's determined seniors didn't let it happen again. The seniors also were key in the quarterfinals win against Vanderbilt, another team that logged a win against Tennessee this season.

"We weren't ready to guard or defend (the Gamecocks') athleticism in Knoxville," Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said. "We've gone back and we really put in the time with our defensive effort. I think you're seeing it pay off."

Glory Johnson led Tennessee with 23 points and 10 rebounds, Shekinna Stricklen scored all 16 of her points in the second half and Baugh grabbed 10 rebounds.

The Lady Vols didn't defend particularly well in the regular-season loss to the Gamecocks and fell apart late in the game after holding a seven-point lead with 5 minutes to go. This time, Tennessee put on extra heat during the second half to pull away.

South Carolina had trimmed Tennessee's lead to 32-29 on a pair of free throws by Markeshia Grant 2 minutes into the second half. Stricklen answered with a 3-pointer that sparked an 8-1 run to make it 40-30 with 15:44 to play.

The Lady Vols shot 50.9 percent (27 of 53) for the game and limited the Gamecocks to 34.9 percent shooting (22 of 63). They held a 38-30 rebounding advantage and hit 15 of 20 from the free-throw line.

"I think finally we figured out that defense and rebounding is the philosophy here," Baugh said. "That's Tennessee basketball. It opens up a lot in the transition game, especially where we're most comfortable."

Grant, who had scored 27 points in the regular-season game, had 13 this time for South Carolina, and Ieasia Walker added another 13 points.

"I think a month ago, I mean, we just had a type of mojo about us going into Knoxville," Grant said. "I think we were just hitting shots, winning the hustle plays, outplaying them. Today I think we did the same, but I think we came up short. We did work hard. I think we did play hard. It was just not our night."

Sixth-seeded South Carolina was playing in its first SEC semifinal after beating Alabama in the opening round and upsetting Georgia (No. 15 ESPN/USA Today, No. 16 AP) in the quarterfinals. The Gamecocks are expected to get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

"(The Lady Vols) are so used to being in this situation year in and year out. I think we got out-experienced today along with I think we got out-talented," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said.

Tennessee will be playing for its third straight SEC championship and 16th overall. The Lady Vols have said they wanted to win championships this season to honor Summitt, who announced in August that she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type.

Summitt has said she would continue coaching as long as she could, though she has turned over more responsibilities to her assistants this season.

"I hope they get coach Summitt another SEC championship," Staley said.

Seniors Key UT's 68-57 Win Over Vandy

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - No. 2-seeded Tennessee outlasted a feisty No. 7 seed Vanderbilt team to advance to the SEC Tournament Semifinals with a 68-57 victory at Bridgestone Arena on a stormy Friday evening. In a game that saw an extended halftime due to tornadoes in the Nashville area, the Lady Vols rode the senior combination of Glory Johnson and Shekinna Stricklen to the hard-fought victory. Stricklen (18 points -- all in the second half and seven rebounds) and Johnson (15 points and nine rebounds) combined for 33 points and 16 rebounds. 29 of those points and 10 of the boards came in the decisive second half.

The Lady Vols will take on #6 South Carolina in the SEC Semifinals. The Gamecocks were an upset winner over #3 seed Georgia on Friday night, 59-55. Tennessee's SEC Semifinal game will start at 6 p.m. ET/5 p.m. CT.

The pair combined to score the final 23 points for the Lady Vols, who moved to 22-8. No other Lady Vol scored for the final 11:04 of the contest.

Tennessee has won 19 consecutive second-round games in the SEC Tournament.

Vanderbilt (21-9) was led by Christina Foggie, who had 16 points and Stephane Holzer, who had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out.

Stricklen bombed an NBA-distance 3-pointer with 3:06 left in regulation, with the shot clock expiring, to give the Lady Vols a 64-55 lead.

The senior duo of Stricklen and Johnson keyed a decisive 14-7 spurt as the seniors scored all 14 points in the run to give Tennessee a 59-51 lead with 6:30 left in the second half.

Up one, Stricklen knocked down a 3-pointer with 9:30 left in the second half to give the Vols a 48-44 advantage. Vandy kept battling back but Stricklen answered again with a 3-point play with 8:49 left for a 51-46 lead.

Vanderbilt continued its rally in the second half, coming back to within one point at 41-40, 43-42 and 45-44.

The game featured an extended halftime of about 45 minutes due to a weather delayed caused by tornado warnings in the Nashville area.

Tennessee led 35-27 at halftime thanks to tremendous shooting from the floor coupled with strong defense. The Lady Vols made 53.8 percent from the floor while limiting Vanderbilt to 26.9 percent (7-of-26). Simmons led all scorers with 11 points.

After being down by as many as 19, Vanderbilt cut its deficit to nine with a 10-0 run over 1:30 in the final three minutes of the first half. That spurt was keyed by perfect free-throw shooting as Vanderbilt was 7-of-7 from the line during the 90-second stretch.

Tennessee used a 13-2 run late in the first to build a 32-13 lead with 3:30 left in the half. Meighan Simmons scored eight points in a row in the run as he energized the Lady Vols.

Vanderbilt went without a field goal for nearly 10 minutes, missing 11 field goals in a row after making their first two shots of the game. The drought ended on a Holzer jumper with 9:24 left in the half, cutting the Commodores deficit to seven at 17-10.

Tennessee opened the game sharp from the floor and received some outside shooting from Vicki Baugh, Briana Bass and Cierra Burdick as the Lady Vols held a 17-8 lead with 10:44 left in the first half. Burdick nailed back-to-back jumpers for UT.

Three Lady Vols Earn All-SEC Honors

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Southeastern Conference announced its annual women's basketball awards today and three University of Tennessee Lady Vols earned honors.

In a vote by the league's 12 coaches, Tennessee graduate student and post Glory Johnson (Knoxville, Tenn.) was selected as the SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Johnson was also named to the eight player SEC First Team, the five player All-SEC Defensive Team and was the SEC Community Service representative from UT.

Senior forward/guard Shekinna Stricklen (Morrilton, Ark.) was selected along with Johnson to the eight player SEC First Team while rookie guard Ariel Massengale (Bolingbrook, Ill.) was placed on the eight player SEC All-Freshman squad.

"Obviously, I am excited for Glory, Shekinna and Ariel," Lady Vol head basketball coach Pat Summitt said. "They are players we count on to step up and lead our team in each and every game.

"I am particularly proud of Glory and her selection as the SEC Defensive Player of the Year. She has raised her level of play this season on both ends of the floor and has been an anchor for us defensively.

"Glory is very deserving of this recognition," Summitt said.

This marks Johnson's second appearance on the All-SEC First Team after also earning the same honor in 2011. Last season, she was a member of the five player 2011 SEC All-Defensive team for the first time. As a rookie, she was named to the 2009 SEC All-Freshman Team. The 6'3" leaper was UT's second leading scorer in SEC games at 13.9 ppg while posting 9.7 rpg.

"There hasn't been a better rebounder than Glory Johnson, night-in and night-out, in SEC play this year," Summitt said. "I think grabbing almost 10 rebounds per game speaks to her commitment to controlling the glass."

Johnson, who graduated in just three years in global studies, is now in graduate school pursuing a master's in communication and information studies. Despite her demanding schedule and maintaining a 3.6 GPA, she also made time to be involved in the community.

This year, she has read to youngsters at a day care center... found time to volunteer at Children's Hospital...been involved with West New Elementary School, Habitat for Humanity and the Knoxville "Extreme Home Makeover." She also assisted with the Knoxville Humane Society's Adopt-a-Pet drive and the UT FCA Girls Night Out.

Stricklen, a 6'2" guard/forward/center for the Lady Vols, was the 2011 SEC Player of the Year. This year, she earned All-SEC First Team honors for the second time (2012, 2011) after placing on the Second Team in 2009 and 2010 and All-Freshman team in 2009. Stricklen led her 2012 Tennessee team in SEC scoring (15.8 ppg) while adding 6.1 rpg.

The 5'6" Massengale has been a dynamic quarterback for the Lady Vols. She has run the team as the rookie point guard from day one and along the way broke the Lady Vol freshman assist record with 137 helpers on the season.

She averaged 7.7 ppg in both SEC and overall play while grabbing 2.7 rpg (SEC) and dishing out over five assists per contest.

The number two-seeded Lady Vols (21-8, 12-4 SEC) open play in the 2012 SEC Tournament at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., on Fri., Mar. 2 at 2:30 p.m. CT (SportSouth). Tennessee will take on the winner of no. 7 seeded Vanderbilt (21-8, 9-7 SEC) and no. 10 seeded Mississippi State (14-15, 4-12 SEC) who play in opening round action on Mar. 1.

The complete 2012 SEC Women's Basketball Postseason Awards:

First Team All-SEC C'eira Ricketts, Arkansas Jennifer George, Florida Anne Marie Armstrong, Georgia A'dia Mathies, Kentucky LaSondra Barrett, LSU Glory Johnson, Tennessee Shekinna Stricklen, Tennessee Christina Foggie, Vanderbilt

Second Team All-SEC Sarah Watkins, Arkansas Jasmine Hassell, Georgia La'Keisha Sutton, South Carolina Jasmine Lister, Vanderbilt Tiffany Clarke, Vanderbilt Ieasia Walker, South Carolina Markeshia Grant, South Carolina Valencia McFarland, Ole Miss Diamber Johnson, Mississippi State

All-Freshman Team Calli Berna, Arkansas Hasina Muhammad, Auburn Erika Ford, Georgia Bria Goss, Kentucky Martha Alwal, Mississippi State Aleighsa Welch, South Carolina Ariel Massengale, Tennessee Kady Schrann, Vanderbilt

All-Defensive Team Anne Marie Armstrong, Georgia Porsha Porter, Mississippi State Glory Johnson, Tennessee A'dia Mathies, Kentucky La'Keisha Sutton, South Carolina

Coach of the Year Tom Collen, Arkansas

Player of the Year A'dia Mathies, Kentucky

Freshman of the Year Bria Goss, Kentucky

Defensive Player of the Year Glory Johnson, Tennessee

6th Woman of the Year Deana Allen, Florida Keyla Snowden, Kentucky

Scholar-Athlete of the Year Blanche Alverson, Auburn

Lady Vols 75, Florida 59

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - With all five seniors in the starting line-up on Senior Day, the No. 10/9 Lady Vols rolled past Florida, 75-59, on Sunday afternoon before 18,563 at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The Lady Vols (21-8, 12-4 SEC) enter SEC Tournament as the No. 2 seed and will face the winner of the No. 7-No. 10 seed game in the second game of the second round on Friday, March 2 at 3:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. CT. That game will be televised on Fox Sports Net and can be heard on the Lady Vol Network.

In her final regular-season home game, Glory Johnson led the Lady Vols with 21 points and 10 rebounds. It was her 10th double-double of the year. Senior Shekinna Stricklen added 15 points and Meighan Simmons tallied 12.

Alicia Manning made the most of her Senior Day as she scored 11 points, grabbed eight rebounds and had five assists.

It was also the final home game for Vicki Baugh and Briana Bass.

Lily Svete led the Gators (18-11, 8-8 SEC) with 12 points while Jennifer George had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Tennessee jumped out to a 15-3 lead to start the game and never trailed the rest of way despite Florida staying within in striking distance throughout the game.

The Lady Vols sealed the game on a Johnson breakaway lay-up with 2:05 left in regulation putting UT ahead 70-57. Manning's jumper gave the Lady Vols a 15-point lead.

Back-to-back hoops by Manning and Stricklen regained a double-figure lead for the lady Vols at 59-48 with six minutes left. The teams then traded 3-pointers by Jones and Stricklen for a 62-51 UT lead with 5:18 left in game.

Florida continued to hang around and cut the deficit to seven at 51-44 on a jumper by Ndidi Madu with 9:43 left in the second half.

Johnson opened the second half with a quick lay-up just 14 seconds in, as the Lady Vols equalled their largest lead of the first half of 12 at 37-25.

Tennessee led 35-25 at halftime as Johnson tallied 12 points prior to intermission including a last-second lay-up for the double-figure advantage.

After Florida opened the game with a 3-pointer by Jones, the Lady Vols ran off 15 points in a row to take a 15-3 lead 6:07 into the action. Johnson had eight of those 15 points.

Florida showed grit as they retaliated with a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to four at 17-13 on another 3-pointer by Jones with 10 minutes left in the first half.

Up next for Tennessee is a trip to Nashville for the Southeastern Conference Tournament where the Lady Vols will await the winner of the first round matchup between Mississippi State and Vanderbilt. The Orange and White looks to defend its 2010 and 2011 SEC Tournament crowns.

NUMBERS OF NOTE
1
Senior Day marks the first time all five members of this senior class started together. Tennessee is now 1-0 when the seniors line up for the opening tip.
8
The win over Florida pulls head coach Pat Summitt closer to her next win plateau. Eight more wins will put her at the 1,100-win milestone.
15
UF opened scoring with a three-pointer, but UT broke into a 15-0 run from there, taking a 15-3 advantage early; all 15 points contributed by the senior class.
137
With five assists versus Florida, freshman point guard Ariel Massengale set the Tennessee freshman record for assists. She has tallied 137 assists in her rookie campaign.
18,563
With 18,563 fans at Thompson-Boling Arena for today's game, Tennessee set a new season-high mark for attendance.

Arkansas upsets Lady Vols 72-71 in overtime

Arkansas had learned a few things about not giving up thanks to its first game against Tennessee this season.

Those lessons paid off as the Lady Razorbacks pulled out a 72-71 win against the 10th-ranked Lady Vols in overtime, handing them a program-worst third home loss for the season. Tennessee had beaten Arkansas 69-38 on Jan. 8 in Fayetteville.

"These kids came in here believing that they could win this game despite the fact that we got beat badly by Tennessee," Arkansas coach Tom Collen said. "The further along we went in the game, the more they believed. They just made a lot of great plays down the stretch to finish it off."

The Lady Razorbacks snapped an 18-game losing skid to Tennessee and became the second Southeastern Conference team this season to win in Knoxville, a place where the Lady Vols previously had not lost a conference game for nearly four years. South Carolina got its first win in Knoxville on Feb. 2.

For Tennessee, it was the third loss at home this season -- the most the program has ever had in a season. The Lady Vols also lost to No. 1 Baylor on Nov. 27.

Shekinna Stricklen hit a layup for Tennessee with 48 seconds left to play to cut Arkansas' lead to 70-69. The Lady Vols got the ball back when Keira Peak lost it out of bounds under the Arkansas basket.

Peak fouled Stricklen, who missed both of her free throws with 10 seconds left. Kamiko Williams then fouled Harris, who sealed the win for Arkansas (21-6, 10-5 Southeastern Conference) with a pair of free throws with 6 seconds left to play.

"I think we all definitely wanted to forget about that first game," Harris said. "We know we played bad that game. We are confident in oru abilities offensively, and I think we were able to stick shots."

Peak then fouled Ariel Massengale to keep the Lady Vols from attempting a 3-pointer to tie the game. Massengale hit both of her foul shots, and Quistelle Williams missed a pair of free throws for Arkansas with 3 seconds left, but Stricklen couldn't get a half-court shot off before the buzzer sounded.

"I have to sink the free throws," Stricklen said. "We had a bad first half, but we came back in the second half. We fought. We just had to step up, and we didn't make the free throws in the end."

The Lady Vols held a 62-60 lead with 48 seconds left in regulation but let C'eira Ricketts run right by them and dish the ball to Sarah Watkins, who hit a layup to tie the game at 62 points with 9 seconds left and force overtime.

Watkins had 18 points, and Ricketts finished with 16 points.

Stricklen led Tennessee (20-8, 11-4) with 17 points, all scored after halftime. Glory Johnson scored all 13 of her points in the second half.

Both teams struggled with hanging on to the ball. Arkansas committed 21 turnovers and Tennessee 19.

The Lady Vols defense had some success frustrating the Lady Razorbacks, who committed four shot-clock violations.

But when Arkansas could get a shot off, it often was a good one. The Lady Razorbacks shot 11 of 19 in the first half and finished 50 percent from the floor.

Watkins drained a 3-point shot and followed with a long jumper to give Arkansas a 21-16 lead with 7:29 in the first half, and the Lady Razorbacks entered halftime with a 31-26 lead -- nearly matching their points total in their 69-38 loss to the Lady Vols on Jan. 8.

Arkansas managed to keep Tennessee off the boards and out of the paint in the first half. The Lady Razorbacks outrebounded the Lady Vols 14-8 and limited them to 9-for-20 shooting before halftime.

Tennessee found some life after halftime from Stricklen and Johnson, who were a combined 0-for-4 with no rebounds in the first half.

"We dug ourselves a hole in the first half," Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said. "You can't have two of your best players not scoring and not rebounding."

Stricklen sank a pair of 3s to pull Tennessee within two points, and Ariel Massengale stole the ball from Ricketts and hit a layup to tie it at 44 points with 12:08 to go. Johnson came up with key rebounds and found her way to the rim and free-throw line to help the Lady Vols keep a slight edge until just before the end of regulation.

Tennessee had entered the game tied with Kentucky for first place in the SEC, but the Wildcats regained sole control of the conference with a win against South Carolina on Thursday night with one game left to play. The Lady Vols dropped to second place.

Arkansas moved into a tie for third place with Georgia.

Pat Summitt to receive AARP "Inspire Award"

At this year's senior game for the Lady Vols, the AARP will celebrate Pat Summitt's "inspiration".

Since her diagnosis of early onset dementia, she has worked as an advocate for those with Alzheimer's, and created the Pat Summitt Foundation for Alzheimer's research.

This year's senior game is on Sunday against Florida.

At that game, AARP will present the national "Inspire Award" to Coach Summitt.

AARP says Summitt has inspired others through her innovative thinking, passion and perseverance.

No. 13 Tennessee women beat Mississippi 66-56

Glory Johnson had 13 points and eight rebounds as No. 13 Tennessee beat Mississippi 66-56 Sunday.

Shekinna Stricklin added 12 points for the Lady Volunteers (20-7, 11-3 Southeastern Conference.) Johnson and Stricklin each shot 5-for-9.

Valencia McFarland had 21 points for Mississippi (12-15, 2-12).

Stricklen leads Lady Vols over Mississippi State

Road wins are never an easy proposition, but this one was particularly ugly.

No. 13 Tennessee overcame 19 turnovers and shot only 38.7 percent (24 of 62) from the field, but still managed to beat Mississippi State 57-41 on Thursday night.

“We didn’t get a lot of transition looks because we were turning the ball over,” Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “If we learned anything it’s that we’ve got to take care of the ball more.”

Shekinna Stricklen scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Lady Vols (19-7, 10-3 Southeastern Conference). Stricklen was 8-for-18 from the field and 5 of 6 from the free-throw line after a slow start.

“I didn’t have my composure,” Stricklen said. “I was rushing and playing at a fast pace, not my own pace. My teammates really helped me get it back under control.”

The win pulls Tennessee even with No. 7 Kentucky atop the SEC standings after the Wildcats’ loss tonight to Alabama.

Tennessee has won three of its last four games and five of its last seven.

Cierra Burdick added 10 points and Glory Johnson grabbed 15 rebounds for Tennessee.

“It wasn’t the prettiest game,” Warlick said. “It was a grind for us and we found a way to win.”

As poorly as Tennessee shot, Mississippi State (14-12, 4-9) shot even worse.

The Bulldogs shot only 24.2 percent (16 of 66) from the floor and trailed by double digits the entire second half.

“We forced enough turnovers and I felt like we really scrapped,” Mississippi State coach Sharon Fanning-Otis said. “But we missed some shots and you have to rebound the ball defensively. You’ve got to get some put-backs and some and-ones, and we’re just not there yet.”

The Bulldogs are now 0-33 all-time versus the Lady Vols.

“Our defense played hard enough for us to win the ballgame,” Fanning-Otis said. “They have awfully good athletes, with great size, at all positions.”

Both teams struggled to find offense, starting the game a combined 1-of-21 from the floor. The Lady Vols led 22-13 at the half.

“We played rushed,” Warlick said. “Once we settled down and got into a rhythm I thought we did well.”

Kendra Grant scored a career-high 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting to lead Mississippi State and Porsha Porter added 15 points.

Diamber Johnson, Mississippi State’s leading scorer this season, finished with three points on 1-of-15 shooting.

“Tennessee’s always been known as the top team in the SEC, but tonight they escaped with a win,” Johnson said. “They hit shots and we didn’t, but I think this proves that we are a good team.”

No. 13 Tennessee routs No. 7 Kentucky women 91-54

Meighan Simmons scored a season-high 25 points and No. 13 Tennessee routed No. 7 Kentucky 91-54 on Monday night.

Shekinna Stricklen added 18 points for the Lady Volunteers, who shot 59 percent while holding Kentucky to 33.3 percent and held a 45-27 rebounding advantage.

Tennessee (18-7, 9-3 Southeastern Conference) never trailed. Simmons hit consecutive 3-pointers to make it 10-2 and blocked a 3-point attempt by Keyla Snowden at the other end, one of six rejections by Tennessee in the first half.

The Wildcats (21-4, 10-2) pulled within 21-16 on a steal by Azia Bishop and a transition layup by Bernisha Pinkett with 9:20 in the first half, but they wouldn't get any closer. The loss marked the first time this season Kentucky has lost consecutive games.

Vicki Baugh scored on a putback and was fouled by Bishop. She missed the free throw but charged through the lane and converted the rebound that put Tennessee up 29-18.

Those baskets launched a 14-0 run by the Lady Vols across a 3:21 stretch. During that time, Kentucky missed two free throws and two shots from the field and turned the ball over four times.

Tennessee led 46-28 at halftime after shooting 60 percent. Both teams had 10 turnovers, but the Lady Vols had scored eight more points off giveaways than the Wildcats.

Tennessee's lead reached 40 points with 4:37 to play.

Bria Goss led the Wildcats with 15 points. A'dia Mathies, who scored 34 points in the last meeting with Tennessee, had 12 and Pinkett finished with 10.

Even with the loss, Kentucky, which hasn't played since a 61-51 loss at LSU on Feb. 5, remains alone in first place in the SEC and Tennessee is second with two weeks left in the season. The Lady Vols would have had a shot at pulling into a tie with the Wildcats but lost Thursday at Vanderbilt.

Kentucky snapped Tennessee's 36-game SEC winning streak with a 61-60 victory in Lexington on Jan. 12.

That game turned out to be part of an uncharacteristic 5-4 stretch for Tennessee. After losing to the Wildcats, the Lady Vols dropped games at Notre Dame and Vanderbilt and lost to South Carolina at home, their first SEC home loss in nearly four years.

During that stretch, Stricklen, a preseason All-America and Tennessee's leading scorer for the season, has shot just 41.8 percent while the usually sharpshooting Simmons has shot just 37.2 percent.

This time, Simmons was 10 of 17 from the field and had three 3s, while Stricklen was 8 for 12.

Lady Vols lack a loathing for losing

Click here to read John Adams: Lady Vols lack a loathing for losing

As Pat Summitt’s role at Tennessee appears to diminish, No. 11 Lady Vols continue to struggle

As legendary coach Pat Summitt’s role with Tennessee seems to be diminishing, her 11th-ranked Lady Volunteers continue to struggle.

In a matter of eight days, they’ve lost twice in the Southeastern Conference, a prospect backed off her longtime commitment to the program and they’re out of the top 10 for the first time this season.

It’s been tough to watch — and not just for the fans.

“They let us down,” Summitt said of her team on her radio show after the Lady Vols’ 93-79 loss at Vanderbilt on Thursday night. “As coaches, we’re not happy and (the players are) not happy. At least they better not be happy because we got more basketball to play. But this one, man this one hurts. It really does.”

Summitt announced in August that she was facing a diagnosis of early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type, after 37 seasons of coaching. The Hall of Fame coach said she would continue coaching as long as she was able to but would turn over more responsibility to her assistants.

Her decision to rely more on her assistants has become more and more evident as the season has gone on. The assistant coaches run most aspects of practice and associate head coach Holly Warlick takes the lead on the bench and in huddles during games while handling postgame news conferences.

“Pat is Pat. I’ll say this, she still gets up and has a voice when we need to make a point, and that’s what I love about her,” Warlick said after Tennessee beat Auburn on Sunday. “She may pick and choose when she does, but when she does, it’s pretty powerful.”

Though Summitt still gives referees or her players an earful in some games, she is completely removed from the team in others.

During a late huddle against South Carolina on Feb. 2 and with the game still in contention, Summitt stepped back as her team huddled without her. The Lady Vols ended up losing 64-60 as the Gamecocks got their first-ever victory in Knoxville.

Against Vanderbilt with a late tipoff, Summitt sat on the bench while her Lady Vols were manhandled on the boards, the type of poor play that in the past brought the coach to her feet with her withering glare forcing them to play better.

With each loss, Summitt is being watched even more closely during games.

Fans debated on Friday on the Knoxville News Sentinel’s website whether it was time for Summitt to retire. Kaela Davis, a high school junior from Buford, Ga., had been committed to playing at Tennessee for several years and announced last week she was looking at other colleges.

Davis’s parents did not respond to a request by The Associated Press seeking comment about the decision, but her mother, Kendra Davis, told ESPN.com she is reconsidering her decision because of concern over Summitt’s future with Tennessee.

“She’s not washing her hands (of Tennessee) or decommitting,” Kendra Davis told ESPN. “Nobody could have foreseen (Summitt’s illness), nor could the effects be foreseen.”

Summitt’s colleagues within women’s basketball have honored her request from the beginning of the season to keep the focus on basketball rather than her or her illness. Still, it’s been hard for her friends to watch her confront her condition.

“It’s been real tough on coach Summitt I know, so I hate to talk about how tough it’s been on me because that takes the focus off of Pat,” said Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell, who spent the 1999-2000 season as a Tennessee graduate assistant. “But I think all of us who are close to her or all of us who have had significant contributions made to our lives by her are struggling with this situation.”

The Lady Vols (17-7, 8-3) have struggled in record fashion this season. They scored the fewest points in program history in what was the second-largest margin of defeat in a 72-44 pounding at No. 2 Notre Dame on Jan. 23. Stanford’s Nnemkadi Ogwumike dropped 42 points on Tennessee on Dec. 20 — the second most by a player.

And Vanderbilt’s 93 points on Thursday were the most the program has ever scored against the Lady Vols.

In those losses, Tennessee has struggled with the style of play that Summitt made the hallmark of her program. The coach always has preached defense and rebounding wins national championships, and Summitt has eight to back her approach.

“Until these guys understand or these young ladies understand the importance of those two things, we’re going to continue down this road of going up and down,” Warlick said.

The road continues Monday night when Tennessee hosts No. 7 Kentucky (21-3, 10-1). Before the Lady Vols’ loss to the Commodores, the game was shaping up to be a contest for control of the SEC. Now the Wildcats are back in control of their own destiny, even as they come off a 61-51 loss at LSU.

Kentucky beat Tennessee 61-60 in Lexington on Jan. 12, and junior guard A’dia Mathies, who hit the winning shot, knows just how much another win against the Lady Vols would mean for the program.

“Being at the top and knowing Tennessee is usually at the top is a great feeling. It’s kind of like you’ve finally arrived, but we haven’t really, because if we lose the next ones, we won’t get the SEC championship,” she said.

The Lady Vols know their own chance to win any kind of championship this year could be slipping away. The pressure has been on Tennessee to return to the Final Four, a spot they haven’t been in since 2008, but it won’t happen without an attitude adjustment.

“We have to have discipline,” sophomore guard Meighan Simmons said. “We can’t play well one game and then come out and not play at all (the next).”

Pat Summitt loses grip on Lady Vols

If you’ve been around Pat Summitt very long, you realize she’s unfailingly direct and unflinchingly blunt.

With that as background, I’ll get right to the point:

Was Thursday night Summitt’s last visit to Memorial Gym as coach of Tennessee’s Lady Vols?

Face it: Her future as Lady Vols coach is the elephant in the room. We can attempt to ignore this sensitive situation or steer our conversations elsewhere, but it’s not going away.

Read the article by clicking here.

Vanderbilt upsets No. 11 Lady Vols 93-79

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt coach Melanie Balcomb sprayed the student section with the ice water from her cup, then slapped high fives before finally heading off the court.

A win over Tennessee is something to celebrate no matter how much the Lady Vols might be struggling.

Tiffany Clarke scored 23 points, and the Vanderbilt Commodores upset No. 11 Tennessee 93-79 on Thursday night for their fifth straight win overall and a very rare victory over their in-state rival.

"It's a rival game, it's Vanderbilt against Tennessee," Balcomb said. "And it's about school pride, and you're still playing the orange. They're 11th in the nation. It's everything it's always been."

For the Commodores (19-5, 7-4 Southeastern Conference), this was their first win against Tennessee since Jan. 11, 2009, and they did it by scoring their most points ever against their rival. It was just Balcomb's second win in 23 games against Tennessee since coming to Vanderbilt.

Tennessee (17-7, 8-3) had won 23 of the last 24 in this rivalry and seven straight. The Lady Vols, who fell out of the top 10 on Monday, now have lost two of three.

Coach Pat Summitt spent most of the game watching from her seat either leaning forward with hands clasped or her legs crossed. She said the Lady Vols were very disappointed.

"I just didn't think we brought the energy early on, and we didn't sustain our runs. We didn't have a whole lot of runs to sustain. We brought the energy early on and we didn't sustain our runs. We didn't have a whole lot of runs to sustain ...," said Summitt on her postgame radio show. "Really just a big, big disappointment. Vanderbilt 93, Tennessee 79. That says everything."

Christina Foggie scored 22 points for Vanderbilt, and Stephanie Holzer added 19. Jasmine Lister had her first double-double with 19 points and a career-high 13 assists.

"We have an inside threat and an outside threat, and not very many teams can guard that," Lister said.

Tennessee sure couldn't.

"We weren't communicating, hands weren't high, we weren't contesting shots," Johnson said. "A lot of wide open 3- point that went in, and there was no one around. At a game like this, you've got to forget about the offense and focus on playing defense."

Glory Johnson led Tennessee with 19 points before fouling out with 5:59 left. Meighan Simmons had a team-high 20 points, and Shekinna Stricklen 17.

Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick was asked afterward if this was Summitt's last game at Memorial Gym. Summitt announced last August she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type.

“I don’t think so,” Warlick said. “I mean Pat is coaching, she’s still coaching and she’s going to continue to coach. So I hope it’s not the last time, and I have not heard if it is or isn’t. She’s still the head coach of this basketball team.”

The Commodores outworked, outshot and simply outplayed Tennessee from start to finish. They shot 55.7 percent (39 of 70) compared to 45.9 percent (28 of 61) for Tennessee as they drove past the Lady Vols time and again for easy layups with plenty of room to hit jumpers. They also outrebounded the Lady Vols 41-27.

The result was Vanaderbilt’s highest scoring half in this series for a 42-34 halftime lead. The Commodores built that to 48-36 on a layup by Kady Schrann with 17:00 left in the second half when Tennessee finally put together its best stretch.

Johnson hit a jumper starting a 16-4 run. Stricklen, held to two points in the first half, hit a jumper and added a 3-pointer and another jumper. Taber Spani hit a pair of free throws, then Cierra Burdick tied it up at 52 with 12:33 left.

That was the Lady Vols’ first lead since 6-5 and finally gave the fans wearing orange something to cheer. It didn’t last because Vanderbilt didn’t wither.

Foggie hit back-to-back 3s putting Vanderbilt ahead to stay, and her 3-pointer with 8:43 left made it a 65-56 lead with 8:43 left. The Commodores just kept scoring from there and went up by as much as 14 down the stretch. That prompted the home fans to get very loud.

Balcomb called the environment the best she’s seen since she’s been at Vanderbilt.

“There was more black and gold than there’s ever been,” Balcomb said. “Marketing did a great job, and the students coming out means everything to this program and to the environment and the atmosphere. And I can tell you, if the students came to every game like that, we wouldn’t lose a game.”

Tennessee led only twice in a first half where the Lady Vols struggled and bounced off the Commodores at times. The Lady Vols took far too many jumpers, especially early that came up short. Only Johnson scoring 15 points with Simmons adding 13 kept them from being blown out early.

Auburn women lose 82-61 at No. 8 Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Auburn coach Nell Fortner could see just enough mistakes in eighth-ranked Tennessee’s game to know that the Tigers had a chance. They just couldn’t do enough against the Lady Volunteers’ size and pressure to get the win.

The Tigers’ 23 turnovers led to 21 points for the Lady Vols, who got the 82-61 win on Sunday.

“I thought we had good looks at the basket,” Fortner said. “I don’t know how many layups we missed, but there were way too many. Tennessee has always been known as a good defensive team. We tended to find some gaps and seams in things they were doing but still had a difficult time finishing the shot. That comes from their size.”

Tennessee had shown plenty of defensive lapses in a rare SEC loss at home to South Carolina on Thursday night. The Lady Vols saw a late seven-point lead slip away in that game as they struggled to cover the Gamecocks’ guards and committed costly turnovers.

Frustrated with the passive effort, the Tennessee coaches went back to the pressure scheme that’s worked so well for the Lady Volunteers in the past.

It appeared to be more of the same early against the Tigers, who hit six of their first nine shots and jumped out to a 9-4 lead quickly.

The Lady Vols (17-6, 8-2) buckled down, coming up with steals and making shots more difficult. By the end of the game, Auburn had 23 turnovers that resulted in 21 points compared to 11 turnovers by Tennessee.

“Mainly it’s us mentally,” Auburn guard Morgan Jennings said. “We just have to slow things down and make good decisions.”

The miscues gave the Lady Vols more of a chance in transition, where the Tigers struggled to guard them. Tennessee finished with 16 points on the break compared to just four by Auburn (11-13, 3-8).

The Lady Vols also dominated the paint, outscoring the Tigers 52-28 there.

“Actually, after the game the kids said, `That was actually fun,”’ associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “When they think it’s fun, we’re going to do it more often, but they’ve got to buy into it. We got success, and when you have success with something you do, it seems to give you more energy.”

Glory Johnson, who had spent much of the South Carolina loss in foul trouble, led the way inside with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Ariel Massengale also scored 14 points, Meighan Simmons added 13 points and Shekinna Stricklen had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Simmons sank a 3 to knot the game at 14 points with 14:22 in the first half. The basket launched a 7-0 run that put Tennessee ahead for good, and the Lady Vols led 44-31 at halftime.

Tennessee outshot Auburn 50 percent to 37 percent after halftime. Stricklen stole the ball from Blanche Alverson, and Massengale got a layup on the break to make it 56-39 with 13:24 to play.

The Tigers fought back, finding a few paths to the rim as the Lady Vols eased up on their defense late in the game. A short jumper by Hasina Muhammad with 6:54 to play cut Tennessee’s lead to 61-53, but it was as close as Auburn would get.

“We play good for about 34 minutes and then kind of break down,” Fortner said. “It was an eight-point game with 6:51 left, and I think we only had eight turnovers in the half at that time, and it just kind of fell apart on us.”

Simmons answered with a layup. Massengale stole the ball from Muhammad on the next possession, and Johnson rebounded a missed shot by Stricklen and hit a layup to help Tennessee pull away again.

Camille Glymph scored 13 points to lead Auburn, which outrebounded Tennessee 42-39. Tyrese Tanner scored 11 before fouling out with 4:52 to play, and Muhammad finished with 10.

Turnovers cost the Tigers in the first meeting of the teams this season, a 73-52 victory by the Lady Vols at Auburn on Jan. 1. The Lady Vols forced 25 turnovers in that game with their pressure.

“We like that style,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of hard work. You can see when everyone gets tired, but we talk to each other. We know that it shakes the other team, especially with our presence on the full court. It makes them change their offense, and we like that.”

South Carolina women beat No. 8 Tennessee 64-60

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — South Carolina honored Tennessee coach Pat Summitt pre-game with a $20,000 donation for Alzheimer’s research. The Gamecocks’ goodwill ended there.

With a career-high 27 points from Markeshia Grant and strong performances from the rest of the team’s guards, South Carolina beat No. 8 Tennessee 64-60 on Thursday night for its first win over the Lady Volunteers since 1980.

“I’m just glad our players got a chance to experience this experience, knowing the tradition of Tennessee,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “By far, this is the biggest win of my career.”

The Gamecocks (18-5, 7-3 Southeastern Conference) were down 60-55, when Ashley Bruner hit a layup with 3:18 to play. The basket launched a 9-0 South Carolina run to close out the game, and Ieasia Walker hit the go-ahead layup with 2:15 to play.

The Lady Vols had led 57-50 with 5:02 to play in the back-and-forth game, but a layup by Walker and a 3-pointer by Grant, one of seven by the senior, fired up the Gamecocks bench. Tennessee remained flat the rest of the way and missed five shots during South Carolina’s game-ending run.

In the final three minutes, the Gamecocks forced a turnover by point guard Ariel Massengale and tied the ball up twice. South Carolina gained possession on the second jumpball, preventing Tennessee a chance at a game-tying shot with 47 seconds left to play.

Tennessee outshot South Carolina 41.4 percent to 39.4 percent and held a 44-36 advantage in rebounding but had little answer for the Gamecocks guards. La’Keisha Sutton added 12 points, and Walker had 11.

“We didn’t have an answer for them the last four minutes of the game. We didn’t have an answer for their runs,” Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “We continue to let star players put up big numbers against us, and that’s been a focal point for us, but obviously it hasn’t been good enough.”

Glory Johnson scored 13 points in 26 minutes for Tennessee (16-6, 7-2), but foul trouble kept her from being the force in the paint the Lady Vols have come to rely on. Ariel Massengale scored 12 points, and Shekinna Stricklen grabbed 10 rebounds.

The Lady Vols hadn’t dropped a SEC game at home since a loss to LSU on Feb. 14, 2008, but have struggled in the first season since coach Pat Summitt announced she’d been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.

“We have the fan support. We have home-court advantage. We’re sleeping in our own beds before the game. We’re having a great pregame meal. We’re completely prepared with the scouting report from our coaches, so this loss is on us. There are no excuses,” Johnson said.

It was the first victory for South Carolina in Knoxville and the Gamecocks’ first win against Tennessee since a 56-52 victory on Jan. 23, 1980, when Warlick was a point guard for Tennessee. The Lady Vols had won 40 straight meetings since then.

It was the second longest active winning streak by one opponent over another. Stanford has beaten Washington State 52 straight times.

South Carolina has been laying the foundation for one of its strongest seasons ever. It now owns the program’s best record since the 2001-02 season which saw the Gamecocks finish 20-3 and reach the NCAA regional finals.

The Gamecocks have managed the feat with the same kind of sharp focus on defense that has been the hallmark of so many Summitt-coached teams. They entered the game ranked second in the nation in limiting opponents to 47.5 points per game and top in the nation with 20.1 3-point shooting defense.

That defense frustrated the Lady Vols all over the floor. They struggled to get second-chance points, hit just one 3-pointer and turned the ball over 11 times.

The Gamecocks’ last win over a top 10 team came in a 71-52 decision over then-No. 6 Vanderbilt on Jan. 3, 2002, in Columbia. The highest ranked team the Gamecocks have defeated in Staley’s four seasons was then-No. 14 Georgia on Feb. 25, 2010, when South Carolina left Athens with a 52-42 victory.

“I really can’t put it into words because I don’t think it has hit me yet,” Sutton said. “I’m really happy for our team, coach Staley, our coaching staff for preparing us and just every player who ever put on a Gamecock uniform.”

During the team shootaround on Thursday, Staley, South Carolina assistant coach and former Lady Vol Nikki McCray and the rest of the Gamecocks presented to Summitt’s son Tyler a $20,000 check to the Alzheimer’s Association in honor of the Hall of Fame coach.

Soon after that, Staley’s own college coach, former Virginia coach Debbie Ryan, spoke to the Gamecocks about believing in themselves. With Staley as her point guard, Ryan’s Cavaliers beat Summitt’s Lady Vols in the 1990 NCAA regional finals.

“We had my college coach Debbie Ryan come talk to our team about everyone believing on one accord and being on one accord and anything is possible,” Staley said. “I think our team took that to heart.”

Path Is Found for the Spread of Alzheimer’s

Good news for Pat Summitt and other people with Alzheimer's.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/health/research/alzheimers-spreads-like-a-virus-in-the-brain-studies-find.html?_r=2&hpw

No. 18 Georgia women fall to No. 7 Lady Vols

ATHENS, Ga. — A strong finish to the first half seemed to leave momentum with Georgia against Tennessee.

That momentum quickly vanished after halftime.

Shekinna Stricklen had 24 points, including six in Tennessee’s 11-0 run to open the second half, and the No. 7 Lady Vols beat No. 17 Georgia 67-50 on Sunday for their second win over the Lady Bulldogs this month.

Georgia scored the final four points of the first half to cut Tennessee’s lead to 29-28 at halftime. A sellout crowd cheered as the Lady Bulldogs pumped their fists on the way off the court.

The upbeat mood quickly soured as Georgia missed its first five shots from the field in the half.

“It seemed like we went back out all of a sudden with no energy,” said Georgia coach Andy Landers.

“Defensively, I thought we stood around for the first two minutes of the second half. I didn’t see the intensity that I would have liked to have seen. We broke down and they got some driving, wide-open layups.”

Meighan Simmons opened the second half with a 3-pointer to spark the Lady Vols’ 11-0 run. Stricklen followed the 3-pointer by scoring on a drive and had a steal and basket later in the 11-0 run.

“They came out and hit some easy buckets which allowed them to get going,” said Georgia’s Meredith Mitchell. “We had some good shots. We just couldn’t knock them down.

“They built the lead a little bit and that got their confidence going and it swung the momentum to their side because at the end of the half we definitely had the momentum.”

The Lady Vols kept the lead in double figures the remainder of the game.

Mitchell had 13 points and Jasmine Hassell had 11 for Georgia, which has lost consecutive games and three of its last four.

Georgia (16-6, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) made only 5 of 25 shots (20 percent) from the field in the second half and made a season-low 28.8 percent of its shots (17 of 59) for the game.

“The readiness was missing,” Landers said, adding his players were “mentally not in it.”

Jasmine James, a preseason All-SEC pick and Georgia’s point guard, missed her fourth straight game with a sprained right knee.

Landers said James is “very close” to returning.

“We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to get her well,” Landers said. “We need her. She’s important.”

Stricklen had seven rebounds, two steals and two assists for Tennessee (16-5, 7-1).

Ariel Massengale had 16 points, including 13 in the second half, for the Lady Vols.

Following a lopsided 72-44 loss at No. 2 Notre Dame on Monday, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt juggled her lineup in Thursday’s 86-56 win at Alabama. Stricklen, who had a streak of 121 consecutive starts, the longest in the nation, end earlier this month due to an injury, didn’t start against Alabama even though she was available.

Stricklen said she understood the message from Summitt and her staff.

“It was a challenge,” said Stricklen, a senior who started against Georgia. “I think it was a good decision by the coaches. I haven’t been playing to my ability and if I’m not playing to my ability I shouldn’t start. That’s what they did and I agreed with them.

“I wasn’t mad. I stayed positive and I was cheering on my team. This is not about me. It’s whatever best for the team.”

Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said the Lady Vols recovered from the loss at Notre Dame.

“We had a tough week,” Warlick said. “We played three games in seven days. They responded. We pushed them in practice and I’m proud of the way they responded.”

Forward Glory Johnson, who 22 points and 13 rebounds in Tennessee’s 80-51 home win over Georgia on Jan. 5, had five points and a team-leading eight rebounds as the Lady Vols completed the sweep of the regular-season series.

Tennessee, which committed a season-low eight turnovers against Alabama, had 19 turnovers, including 12 in the first half.

The Lady Vols led 53-37 before Georgia pulled to within 10 at 53-43. Massengale answered with a 3-pointer.

Georgia battled foul problems late in the game. Mitchell was called for her fifth with 1:19 remaining.

Attendance was 10,523, Georgia’s fifth sellout in school history and first since Jan. 14, 2007 against Tennessee.

No. 7 Tennessee women bounce back to beat Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Alabama came into Thursday night's game against Tennessee riding a six-game losing streak. The fact Tennessee was fired up after the second-worst loss in program history only made matters worse.

Shekinna Stricklen scored 14 points and Glory Johnson added 13 to lead the No. 7 Lady Vols to an 86-56 win over the Crimson Tide.

"I'm really proud of our team for the effort that they gave," said Alabama head coach Wendell Hudson. "I thought we competed and played awfully hard. We played a very good basketball team. ... I didn't see anything drastic."

Kamiko Williams and Isabelle Harrison chipped in 10 points apiece for the Lady Vols (15-5, 6-1 Southeastern Conference), who rebounded from a 72-44 setback at No. 2 Notre Dame on Monday.
"We were happy with the pace we played," said Tennessee assistant coach Holly Warlick.

"Obviously, we wanted to score. We wanted an up-tempo game. I thought the first half, Alabama hung tough with us."

Kyra Crosby had 15 points and five rebounds for the Crimson Tide (10-11, 0-7 SEC).

Tennessee jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the game's first 2 minutes and was comfortably ahead for most of the opening half. The Vols led by 15 points at the break.

"To have a good start, I think that helps our team a lot, gives us a lot of confidence and warns people for next time," said Johnson.

The Vols had only four turnovers compared to Alabama's eight. Tennessee also won the rebounding battle 24-17.

"What I thought happened in the first half is if we'd made some free throws, maybe kept the score a little bit closer, it might've been a different type basketball game," said Hudson. "But from the effort standpoint, Tennessee is a very good basketball team, and I thought we competed."

Tennessee scored 25 points off 22 turnovers, including 11 steals.

The Vols shot 45 percent from the field (32 of 71) but just 21 percent of its 3-point attempts (4 for 19). Alabama's performance from long range was much worse; the Tide went 1-for 14.

Tennessee Lady Volunteers: Time for Pat Summitt to Abandon the Bench

Please read this story by Abacus Reveals (Correspondent) for Bleacher Report. Feel free to offer your opinions here.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1037964-tennessee-lady-volunteers-time-for-pat-summitt-to-abandon-the-bench

Diggins leads Irish women to rout of Tennessee

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Skylar Diggins matched a season high with 27 points Monday night and No. 2 Notre Dame routed No. 7 Tennessee 72-44, holding the Vols to their lowest scoring output in school history.

Devereaux Peters had 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Irish (20-1), who have won 17 straight. Tennessee (14-5) got 13 points from Meighan Simmons, but shot just 27.9 percent in the lopsided loss.

Notre Dame was 0-20 all-time against the Vols before a 73-59 victory in the NCAA regional finals last March in Dayton, Ohio. The Irish haven't lost since Nov. 20 to top-ranked Baylor and have now beaten both UConn and Tennessee on their home floor this season after toppling both in last year's NCAA tournament.

Leading at the half, the Irish jumped out early in the second as Diggins sank a 3-pointer and Peters had three inside baskets in an 11-3 run that opened up a 39-21 lead three minutes in. Tennessee continued to miss on everything, from both the field and the free-throw line.

Diggins made a nice strip of an inside pass, dribbled the length of the court, passed to Peters and then got it back for a layup to make it 44-26 with just over 14 minutes left. Then after picking up her third foul, Diggins hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to make it a 21-point lead. Diggins was 10 of 17 from the field and 5 for 7 on 3-pointers.

After Tennessee closed to within 16 with about seven minutes to go, the Irish went on one final run to put it away. Kayla McBride added 17 points for the Irish.

The Vols made just 17 of 61 field-goal attempts and were only 7 for 16 from the free-throw line.

Rebounding, including eight early offensive caroms, kept the Vols close in the early stages of the game because they could not make a shot. They missed 14 of their first 17 attempts from the floor and finished the first half 7 for 35 (20 percent). And the poor shooting extended to the line, where the Vols were only 4 for 10. The field-goal percentage and total points were first-half lows for the Vols this season.

McBride, showing an ability to break for the basket, had nine straight Notre Dame points at one juncture and scored 11 in the first half. Diggins ended up with 10 at the half, hitting two free throws with 2 seconds left to put the Irish up 28-18.

Tennessee's leading scorer, Shekinna Stricklen, who missed the previous game against LSU with a sprained knee, returned to the lineup and managed five points — five points under her average. And Vols guard Taber Spani, who has been sidelined with a bone bruise in her left knee since Dec. 26, was also able to play.

Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, who has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, received a nice ovation when she came on the floor before the game and waved to the crowd, most of which was dressed in lime green.

9th-ranked Lady Vols prove it can withstand LSU's force

Physical game goes UT's way as Simmons, Burdick lead way

Meighan Simmons and Cierra Burdick's games have been one-sided enough in the past that Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick was concerned about relying on them to fill in for a couple of top players.

Simmons scored 19 and Burdick added 15 for No. 9 Tennessee. More importantly, both pleased Warlick with their sound defense as the Lady Vols got a 65-56 win in an especially physical game against LSU on Thursday night.

"We didn't need (Simmons) or Cierra to be a liability on the defensive end," Warlick said. "Those two young ladies have stepped up. They've put in extra time, and I think it showed tonight."

The Lady Vols (14-4, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) won without leading scorer Shekinna Stricklen, whose streak of 121 consecutive starts ended because of a sprain to her right knee suffered Sunday against Vanderbilt. They've also been without guard Taber Spani, who has been sidelined with a bone bruise in her left knee since Dec. 26.

Simmons has stepped up her offense in Spani's absence, and Tennessee turned to Burdick to help fill in for Stricklen, who was averaging 15.5 points. Before facing LSU, Burdick was playing just under 12 minutes per game but stayed on the floor for 31 minutes against the Lady Tigers.

"With Strick and Taber being out, I knew more minutes were going to be played by the bench, and I just tried to come into this game prepared," Burdick said. "I'm learning a lot from some great players ahead of me, so I'm just trying to use it and take it as positive and just really learn from this experience."

The score was tied 11 times and the teams traded the lead six times before Burdick hit a tiebreaking jumper with 6:22 left that put the Lady Volunteers ahead for good, 51-49.

Vicki Baugh rebounded a missed 3-pointer by LSU's Bianca Lutley on the next possession, and Simmons hit a layup on the break. Tennessee got two more transition baskets in the final three minutes and padded its lead with free throws, despite an uncharacteristic 18-of-31 performance from the line.

Meanwhile, the Lady Tigers only hit one more shot from the floor during the final stretch, a jumper by Adrienne Webb that made it 62-56 with 1:27 left.

Courtney Jones led LSU (13-5, 4-2) with 16 points, and Webb scored 12.

Baugh grabbed 14 rebounds and Glory Johnson added 10 points for Tennessee, which shot 42.9 percent in the second half compared to 34.5 percent by LSU.

The game pit first-year LSU coach Nikki Caldwell against her mentor and former coach, Pat Summitt. Caldwell won three combined national titles as a player and assistant at Tennessee and has mimicked Summitt's defensive focus at both UCLA and LSU.

"Coming in to play against Tennessee, you're always really hyped up and ready to play," LSU forward Theresa Plaisance said. "You just need to be mentally ready and physically ready to come in"

The Lady Tigers had entered the game leading the SEC and ranking second nationally in field goal percentage defense (30.3 percent) and ranked second in the SEC and third nationally in scoring defense (47.5 points per game).

The defenses took over for both teams in the first half, resulting in a physical and injury-filled game.

"Obviously it was a knock-down drag out type fight, but it was a very competitive fight," Caldwell said. "You saw two teams playing every possession like it was their last."

LSU starting point guard Jeanne Kenney left just two minutes into the game with a probably concussion.

Starting guard Destini Hughes took over at the point for Kenney, scoring eight points before she severely injured her right knee trying to catch and shoot off a long pass 3 seconds before halftime. Hughes was tended to by trainers from both teams and taken off the floor in a wheelchair.

Tennessee briefly lost Glory Johnson, who hurt her left shoulder after colliding with another player on a rebound a few minutes before halftime. Johnson headed to the locker room immediately but returned early in the second half, playing with a compression sleeve on the shoulder.

The cumulative effect of the Lady Vols' injuries could prove problematic. Tennessee heads to No. 2 Notre Dame on Monday night, and Warlick was unsure if Stricklen or Spani would be available for the game.

"I'll be fine on Monday," Johnson said. "I'll make sure."

No. 25 Vandy women lose 87-64 at No. 6 Tennessee

Perhaps Vanderbilt could learn a thing or two from Tennessee about how to come out of halftime.

The 25th-ranked Commodores committed fouls and turnovers early in the second half as the No. 6 Lady Volunteers pulled away for an 87-64 victory on Sunday.

“They came out more inspired and intense on defense and took away passes and shot the gap and got offense and got us to turn it over,” Vandy coach Melanie Balcomb said.

“We’ve been struggling all year; we have not come out inspired after halftime the first 4 minutes, and I thought we helped feed into that. We didn’t come out the way we should have.”

The Lady Vols were coming off a 61-60 loss at No. 9 Kentucky, their first Southeastern Conference loss in nearly two years and seemed to carry their disappointment into a back-and-forth first half against Vanderbilt.

With Tennessee up 39-36, coach Pat Summitt, who before the season announced she had early onset Alzheimer’s, reminded the Lady Vols about the pride of wearing their orange jerseys—especially when playing the in-state rival Commodores, whom they face at least twice every season.

Tennessee (13-4, 4-1) responded by turning it up on the court.

“If you question that Pat Summitt does not have an influence on this team, at halftime she had a major influence,” associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “She challenged them the way Pat Summitt challenges them. They were inspired when they left the locker room.”

On the offensive end, they fought to get the ball inside to Shekinna Stricklen, Glory Johnson and Vicki Baugh.

Vanderbilt struggled to guard the pair in the post, with Tiffany Clarke picking up her third and fourth fouls within the first 1:17 of the second half and Stephanie Holzer fouling out with 8:07 left.

Stricklen scored 16 of her team-leading 20 points in the second half. Johnson finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds and Baugh added 16 points.

Tennessee held a 45-43 lead when Stricklen hit a layup with 15:17 to go, launching a 16-2 run that put the game out of reach for the Commodores (14-3, 2-2). Stricklen’s basket came off an assist by Ariel Massengale, one of her 12 in the game.

Isabelle Harrison stole the ball from Vandy’s Christina Foggie, and Massengale hit a layup on the break to make it 61-45 with 10:26 to play.

Balcomb called a timeout to give the Commodores a chance to regroup, but all they could do was keep pace as the Lady Vols hit 55.6 percent of their second-half shots.

Foggie and Holzer were the only Commodores who didn’t seem bothered much by the Lady Vols’ smothering defense. Vandy hit just 40 percent of its shots after halftime.

Foggie, whose 17.3 points per game ranks second in the SEC, tied her career high of 27 points for a third time this season, and Holzer scored 14 points before fouling out.

“In the first half I hit a few 3s, and after halftime they were more up in my space. That’s when I became aggressive and attacked the basket and got fouled a few times,” Foggie said. “It was just an adjustment of how to score after halftime.”

Tennessee finished with a 39-30 rebounding advantage, 18 more points in the paint and 21 points off 24 Vanderbilt turnovers in what turned into a physical, scrappy game.

Stricklen, a preseason all-American who leads Tennessee in scoring, gave her team a scare when she hit the floor clutching her right knee and screaming after going for a rebound with 3 minutes left.

Warlick said it appeared Stricklen had a knee strain, but would be fully evaluated on Monday.

“All I remember is going up for the ball, and I don’t know,” Stricklen said. I hit my knee, and I came down wrong. I probably hyperextended it, but I really don’t know.”

Johnson left the game with 1:50 before halftime after Vandy’s Elan Brown landed on top of her while the two went for a loose ball. She held ice on top of her right eye, but returned to start the second half.

“I’ll spend the majority of tomorrow since we have an off day in the training room getting treatments,” Johnson said. “I’m hurting today, and I know I’m going to wake up feeling worse.”

All 12 SEC schools will help raise awareness for Alzheimer's Disease and The Pat Summitt Foundation

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina women's basketball's participation in the SEC-sponsored "We Back Pat" Week will be an extension of a fundraising effort the Gamecocks began in October when they took part in the Walk to End Alzheimer's at Finlay Park. In Sunday's game against Kentucky, South Carolina will bring even more awareness to the disease and the Pat Summitt Foundation.

The Gamecocks will wear special shooting shirts for the game, and special in-game PSAs and other information will help fans learn more about the disease, for which there is currently no cure, and the many Americans affected by it.

South Carolina women's basketball already raised over $8,000 dollars from its October Walk, and fans can still contribute to that effort. The Gamecocks' team, which was named "4 Coach Summitt," worked with the Alzheimer's Association to keep its team page active for contributions through the end of January. South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley hopes to present Pat Summitt with a $20,000 check for her foundation when the Gamecocks take on the Lady Vols on Thu., Feb. 2

Fans can contribute to the Gamecocks' fundraising efforts by going to the "4 Coach Summitt" team page at walktoendalz.kintera.org/columbiasc/4coachsummitt.

During the week of January 15-22, all SEC member institutions will support the Pat Summitt Foundation Fund during their home basketball games. During the 17 women's and 12 men's games slated for the week, various efforts will be made to increase awareness of the Pat Summitt Foundation Fund. Twenty of these games will be televised.

The Pat Summitt Foundation Fund launched November 27, 2011 by Pat Summitt after her diagnosis of early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type at the age of 59.

The Pat Summitt Foundation Fund will make grants to nonprofits that provide:
• Education and awareness of Alzheimer's, its onset and treatment
• Support services to patients, their families and caregivers
• Research to treat, prevent, cure, and ultimately eradicate this disease


About The Pat Summitt Foundation Fund
Pat Summitt and her supporters have entrusted The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to facilitate the charitable work of The Pat Summitt Foundation Fund. The Fund was established to support Pat Summitt's dream of finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. For more information or to make a donation, please visit www.patsummitt.org.

About The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee oversees more than 800 charitable funds. In the past twenty years, The Community Foundation has distributed $530 million to community programs and institutions. It is located at 3833 Cleghorn Avenue, #400, Nashville, Tennessee 37215. For more information, call 615-321-4939 or visit www.cfmt.org.

No. 6 Tennessee women’s 36-game SEC streak ends

Glory Johnson will not focus on the last play when A’dia Mathies abruptly ended sixth-ranked Tennessee’s 36-game Southeastern Conference winning streak. Instead, she’ll dwell on all the little things the Lady Volunteers did wrong in a 61-60 loss to No. 9 Kentucky on Thursday night.

Mathies drove the lane and scored in traffic with 4.2 seconds left to finish with a career-high 34 points.

“Mathies did a great job of getting to the basket,” said Johnson, who had 17 points. “We’re not going to look at that one play, we’re going to look at missed layups and missed free throws and turnovers and everything that happened that shouldn’t have.”

With Kentucky trailing 60-57, Mathies followed her own shot to cut it to one with 46 seconds left.

After Tennessee (12-4, 3-1) was called for a charge and Kentucky (15-2, 4-0) used a timeout, Mathies took the ball at halfcourt, dribbled into the lane and hit a 7-foot floater.

“We didn’t have an answer for her tonight, it didn’t start with the last shot,” Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “She was outstanding. My hat’s off to her. She was outstanding.”

Tennessee’s Kamiko Williams drove the length of the floor, but missed an off-balance 16-footer as time expired. Tennessee rallied from 12 points down with 7:46 left to take a lead, but lost for the first time in the SEC since falling 53-50 at Georgia on Jan. 21, 2010.

“Our defense got us back in the game,” Warlick said. “We made a couple of runs.”

Vicki Baugh scored 16 points and Shekinna Stricklen 11 for Tennessee, but it wasn’t enough to keep Kentucky from winning its first four games in conference play for the first time in history to go with 15 straight at home.

Kentucky led 50-38 off two free throws by Mathies with 7:46 left when Tennessee used a 16-4 rally to tie it. Meighan Simmons and Stricklen hit 3s, while Ariel Massengale’s three-point play made it 54-all.

Then, after Mathies made two more free throws, Stricklen hit a layup, Kentucky’s Amber Smith threw a pass away that led to a free throw by Johnson and Mathies fell and lost the ball that started Tennessee’s 3-on-0 break that ended with a layup by Baugh to give the Lady Vols a 59-56 with 2:06 left.

At the timeout, the Kentucky pep band played “Don’t Stop Believin”’ with the game seemingly getting out of control.

Bria Goss made one of two free throws for the Wildcats and Johnson hit the second of two attempts to put Tennessee back ahead 60-57.

Goss then missed a 3 that would’ve tied it, but grabbed her own rebound and Kentucky got another possession. Mathies scored on a putback to cut it to 60-59 and Stricklen was whistled for a charge with 28 seconds to play, setting up the final possession.

“Credit Kentucky defensively, they made us play fast at times, they made us rush, so the combination of that and the tempo that the game was being played,” Warlick said. “We were playing too fast and we didn’t make plays.”

The last time these two teams played in the SEC Tournament, the Lady Vols routed the Wildcats by 25. This one looked to be different from the start between the two schools that have many ties on the coaching staff on both sides.

Tennessee used a 10-2 run midway through the first half to take a 20-18 lead before both teams went cold for the next five minutes, combining to miss 25 consecutive shots and commit 12 turnovers before Mathies grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a putback to end the cold snap.

The Lady Vols’ struggles continued. Alicia Manning hit the second of two free throws, but a bucket by Keyla Snowden gave Kentucky a 25-21 halftime lead as Tennessee finished the half with 16 straight misses and eight turnovers.

Johnson’s 8-footer in the lane on the team’s first shot of the second half ended the span of nearly 11 minutes without a field goal, but Kentucky would still build a 50-38 lead behind Mathies and Snowden before Tennessee’s furious rally.

“We dug ourselves in a hole, we battled back and you can’t do that; you can’t do that against good teams,” Warlick said.

Tennessee coach Pat Summitt learns to deal with devastating disease

LEXINGTON, KY. - There is a lot of uncertainty around Tennessee these days.

The coaches and players would be lying if they said otherwise.

"We are in uncharted waters here," assistant coach Mickie DeMoss said on Tuesday night, two nights before the sixth-ranked Lady Vols face No. 9 Kentucky in Memorial Coliseum.

There is no tattered parchment map to point out how one works with a head coach battling the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, as Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt is.

There is no Google map to chart exactly how a team wins a ninth national championship while relying heavily on its assistant coaches to do much of the day-to-day work.

"I don't know that in the history of sports a head coach has ever gone public with early stages of dementia," DeMoss said. "We are really learning as we're going."

But DeMoss, who was the head coach at Kentucky from 2003 until she stepped down in 2007, has charted some of these rough waters before.

She watched her own mother battle this same disease that now threatens to slowly chip away at one of college basketball's greatest minds.

"I think about it all the time," DeMoss said. "I think about her as my friend, much more than as a coach. I went through this with my mom. ... It certainly has prepared me to deal with it with a lot more patience and compassion."

DeMoss doesn't believe in coincidences.

She believes everything happens for a reason.

So that day when Summitt called her to come back to Tennessee and be an assistant coach there again (she was there for 20-plus years before leaving for the UK job), it was meant to be.

"I knew Pat needed me," DeMoss said.

Then she paused.

"I knew there was a need for me to come back here," said DeMoss, who was then an assistant at Texas. "I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time, but I knew I needed to come back."

Public battle

There were signs of Summitt's failing memory last season, DeMoss said.

Her assistants kept attributing her memory lapses to a bad mix of medication for the coach's silent struggle with rheumatoid arthritis.

But Summitt started to worry that it was something more. She received her early- onset dementia diagnosis last summer while being tested at the Mayo Clinic.

The 59-year-old coach told the world about her diagnosis in late August. She wanted to be open and honest. She wasn't scared to become the face of the disease.

"I feel better just knowing what I'm dealing with," Summitt told the Knoxville News Sentinel at the time. "And as far as I'm concerned it's not going to keep me from living my life, not going to keep me from coaching."

Since then, DeMoss and her fellow assistant coaches Holly Warlick and Dean Lockwood have gone about the business of keeping Tennessee a national power.

Tennessee's assistants - with nearly 90 years of coaching experience among them - have divvied up much of the day-to-day coaching responsibility.

"We did not want our players to be confused," DeMoss said. "We did not want me calling out an offense and Holly calling out a different one. Or Dean calls a defense and I'm calling out a press."

So they split things up like a football staff, DeMoss explained, with Lockwood and Warlick taking over the defensive side of the ball and Summitt and DeMoss responsible for offensive play calling.

Summitt, who is exercising her mind and body religiously to fight off the dementia, isn't as hands-on at practices and in games as she used to be.

But the coach is still effective at getting her point across, in ways that only Summitt can.

"She can come in and pick and choose what she wants to tweak," DeMoss said. "When she gets on the kids now, it speaks volumes because she doesn't rant and rave for 40 minutes like she used to. ... When she really wants to make a point with someone now, it has more meaning."

Like everyone battling this disease, Summitt has good days and bad days, her friend said.

When the head coach has traveled and gotten in late or done long fund-raising or booster events the day before, she might not be "quite as sharp," DeMoss said, before adding.

"But again, she's handling this as well as anyone in her position could ever imagine."

'Not a pity party for Pat'

Summitt is a strong and sturdy tree trunk with branches reaching far and wide across the country.

Her fingerprints will be on women's basketball via her former players and assistant coaches long after she has left the game.

Kentucky Coach Matthew Mitchell is one of those coaches as are UK assistants and former Tennessee players Kyra Elzy and Shalon Pillow.

Mitchell, a former Vols graduate assistant, admitted that things will be different when Summitt comes to Memorial Coliseum for a battle of top 10 teams on Thursday night.

"I don't know how this is going to go," Mitchell said when asked about taking on Summitt. "I really don't."

"I think about her often and we try to stay in touch and try not to hound her because I know a lot of people are after her," he said.

Mitchell said UK will try to do what Summitt has asked and not make this season about her disease.

"She wants it to be about the players on the floor," he said. "So we're going to try to honor that and try to get prepared and beat them."

Tennessee and UK are in a battle for supremacy in the Southeastern Conference, so in some ways Summitt's condition will fade into the shadows, which is how the head coach wants it, DeMoss said.

"Pat wouldn't want anybody to not want to kick her butt like they always have," DeMoss said. "She'd be insulted. She doesn't want anybody's sympathy. She has said it's not a 'pity party for Pat.'"

No. 6 Tennessee women beat Arkansas 69-38

Shekinna Stricklen made sure she went out in style in her last performance in her home state.

Stricklen scored 19 points, and Glory Johnson recorded her fifth straight double-double, as No. 6 Tennessee routed Arkansas 69-38 on Sunday.

The win was the 36th straight in Southeastern Conference play for the Lady Volunteers (12-3, 3-0), who opened the game with a 25-3 run and never looked back.

Tennessee hasn’t lost an SEC game since a 53-50 loss at Georgia on Jan. 21, 2010, and it was in no jeopardy of doing so while holding the Razorbacks to a season-low point total.

“Our defense was just outstanding,” Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “We were swarming, and that’s the type of defense that a Tennessee team should always play.”

Arkansas, meanwhile, remained winless in SEC play. The Razorbacks (11-4, 0-3) hit only 3 of 30 shots in the first half, and their 10-of-55 shooting for the game (18.1 percent) was the worst in school history.

“I haven’t sat at the podium many times after playing a game where I felt like we were totally outplayed from beginning to end,” Arkansas coach Tom Collen said. “I promise you, it wasn’t much prettier from the seat that I had on the floor, and I’m sure it wasn’t real pretty from the stands.”

Stricklen, who starred in high school in Morrilton, Ark., scored what was a career-high 26 points in a win at Arkansas last season, and the Lady Volunteers’ leading scorer was equally impressive this time around. The senior scored six points early as Tennessee opened with a 14-0 run, including one of her two 3-pointers for the game.

“Shekinna, I know there’s a lot of pressure on her to come home and play,” Warlick said. “But she seems to thrive on playing in this gym. If we could take this gym back home for Shekinna, we would.”

She finished 8 of 12 from the field and had eight rebounds in front on a sizeable and vocal cheering section behind the Tennessee bench. The strong effort came after Stricklen had shot just 32 percent over her last four games.

“It felt great coming back home and playing in front of my family and friends and people from my community,” Stricklen said. “It’s just great to come back.

“… It felt good to come home and kind of get out of a slump.”

Stricklen’s performance was hardly the only dominant one.

Johnson, who entered the game only four rebounds short of 1,000 for her career, didn’t need long to reach that mark against the Razorbacks (11-4, 0-3). She grabbed her fourth rebound and scored on a putback late in the first half to put Tennessee up 31-8—finishing with 15 points and 14 rebounds.

The game was well out of hand at that point.

Arkansas didn’t score until Lyndsey Harris’ 3-pointer 6:24 into the game, and it opened 1 of 19 from the field. Harris, who finished with 14 points, hit two first-half 3-pointers, and the Razorbacks’ only other basket was a putback by Quistelle Wiliams.

Arkansas’ previous worst shooting half was a 3-of-26 performance against Wichita State in 1981. Its previous worst game was 8 of 41 against Louisiana Tech in 1978.

The Razorbacks entered the game shooting just 38 percent as a team for the season. The previous worst performance this season was a 17-of-53 effort against Florida State in November, but they managed to win that game 55-52.

They had no such chance against the suffocating defense of Tennessee, which held Arkansas’ leading scorer C’eira Ricketts to two points on 1-of-11 shooting. Harris didn’t fare much better at 4 of 14.

“I think eventually we did kind of get down on ourselves as the game went on and the shots weren’t falling,” Harris said. “I think we put a lot of pressure on each of us individually to kind of score.”

No. 6 Tennessee women beat No. 16 Georgia 80-51

For Tennessee coaches, the evidence of Glory Johnson’s heart is in the senior’s rebounding totals. Her scoring is a bonus.

Johnson, who has 1,331 total points and needs four rebounds to reach 1,000 for her career, had season highs of 22 points and 13 rebounds to help the sixth-ranked Lady Vols beat No. 16 Georgia 80-51 Thursday night.

“You look at Glory and you see her points, but she plays with a lot of heart,” Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “How you determine that, to me, is how many rebounds she gets, how many hustle plays she got. She was all over the floor tonight. She was an All-American tonight.”

The Lady Vols (11-3, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) used 52 percent shooting in the first half keep in front of the Lady Bulldogs, who hit just 36 percent of their shots from the field. Tennessee has now won 16 of its last 18 against its top SEC rival.

Johnson hit the first basket of the second half to give Tennessee a 38-27 lead. Jasmine Hassell answered with a short jumper, Jasmine James sank a free throw and Anne Marie Armstrong hit a layup on the break to cut the margin to six points.

“I just knew it was going to be a quick game, and we all know that Georgia loves to run in transition every time we play them,” Johnson said. “We just wanted to let them know that we’re a team that can run in transition too, and so it’s going to be a game.”

It didn’t take long for it to stop being much of a game. Shekinna Stricklen was fouled on a layup and hit her free throw to launch a 14-4 run that helped the Lady Vols pull away. Johnson scored six points during the stretch.

Cierra Burdick put back a shot with 3:57 to play to make it 76-45, Tennessee’s largest lead of the game, and the reserves ran the show the rest of the way.

“They did what they do, and we didn’t affect it very well,” said Georgia coach Andy Landers, whose 15 career wins against Tennessee is more than any other head coach. “I’m not real pleased with that. Not pleased at all. They did what they do. That sums it up. They played the way they played. Georgia didn’t do one thing to change it.”

Ariel Massengale scored 19 points for a second game to tie her career high at Tennessee. Stricklen added 12 points, Meighan Simmons had 10 and Vicki Baugh grabbed 10 rebounds.

Though the Lady Bulldogs (12-3, 1-1) have had four players put up double-digit scoring in the past three games, Meredith Mitchell was the only one to do it against Tennessee with 14 points. Hassell, who had averaged 16.1 points in Georgia’s 10 previous games, had just eight.

The Lady Vols finished with a 52-32 rebounding advantage, outscored the Lady Bulldogs 42-12 in the paint and hit 20 of 28 at the free-throw line.

“We just didn’t do what we were supposed to do,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t get back. We didn’t rebound. We didn’t fight, and that’s where the game turned for us for the worse.”

Massengale took control for the Lady Vols early. When she wasn’t driving to through the lane for a layup or shooting 3s she was dishing the ball to her teammates for layups of their own. Massengale scored at the hoop with 13:36 in the first half to give Tennessee a 17-6 lead.

Armstrong answered with a 3-pointer and a jumper for Georgia, and James hit a shot a few minutes later to cut the margin to 20-16.

Massengale responded, pulling up at the free-throw lane to hit a shot, and Simmons sank a 3 in front of the Georgia bench to push Tennssee’s lead back to eight points, where it would hover for most of the rest of the half.

Tennessee hasn’t dropped an SEC game since a 53-50 loss at Georgia on Jan. 21, 2010. Since then the Lady Vols have won 35 conference games, sweeping last year’s league schedule, and have earned two SEC regular season and tournament titles.

“I didn’t realize we’d won 35 games in a row,” Warlick said. “This team, we put a lot of value on going to the Final Four and competing for a national championship. Sometimes what we do in the SEC gets kind of put aside, but it’s amazing to me that this group has done what they’ve done.”

No. 6 Tennessee women rout Chattanooga 90-47

Tennessee athletic trainer Jenny Moshak told Kamiko Williams over the summer that if she wanted to return from ACL surgery before the 2011-12 season ended, she would have to keep a positive attitude and push through a tough rehabilitation process.

Fortunately, Williams has no problem keeping her spirits up.

“I’m happy-go-lucky anyways,” Williams said. “With J-Mo just kicking my butt every day and (conditioning coach) Heather Mason doing her thing, I just got it done. I had no choice. If I wanted to come back, I had to do it.”

The junior guard surprised everyone by making her first appearance for the season in No. 6 Tennessee’s 90-47 rout of Chattanooga on Tuesday night, just five months after the July 22 surgery on her left knee.

Williams finished with two points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals in 16 minutes. Primarily, the Lady Volunteers are thrilled for what her return means as they enter a tough month that includes games against No. 16 Georgia, No. 11 Kentucky, No. 24 Vanderbilt and No. 3 Notre Dame.

“You see what we missed,” associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “We were concerned. Kamiko had never been injured. An ACL injury is obviously a very serious injury, and we were concerned about how she would rehab, but she’s been unbelievable. She hasn’t missed a day with Jenny, and her knee is so much stronger.”

Tennessee (10-3) just needed for her to get comfortable being back on the floor against Chattanooga (8-4). Her teammates took care of the rest.

Ariel Massengale made all six of her shots from the floor, including four 3s, to finish with 19 points—a new career high. Glory Johnson added 10 points and 13 rebounds, Isabelle Harrison scored 13, Meighan Simmons added 10 points.

Every Lady Vol that played sank a bucket.

Whitney Hood hit the first basket of the game for Chattanooga, and the Lady Mocs kept it close for the first 3 1/2 minutes of the game.

Faith Dupree, who signed with Tennessee but transferred after sitting out her freshman season with back problems, hit a jumper to cut Tennessee’s lead to 10-8 with 16:34 to play. Dupree finished with a team-leading 17 points, and Hood had 10.

“Coming back to this atmosphere I knew that I should step up,” said Dupree, a Knoxville native. “I was anxious at the beginning, definitely.”

Chattanooga wouldn’t score again for 12 minutes, and Tennessee scored the next 30 points. The Lady Vols sank four 3s, scored 12 points off nine Chattanooga turnovers and hit 56.3 percent of their shots during the first half. They held a 50-16 lead at halftime.

Williams entered the game during the run and immediately went to work, grabbing the rebound on a missed 3-point attempt by Cierra Burdick and putting it back up for a layup to make it 38-8. She dished the ball on the next possession to Burdick, who hit a jumper.

The Lady Mocs finished the half having hit only 6 of 29 shots from the field and missing all eight of their 3-point attempts while being outrebounded 28-12 by Tennessee.

By the end of the game, the Lady Vols held a 55-28 rebounding margin, which they turned into 30 second-chance points. They had 19 points off 17 Chattanooga turnovers and blocked nine shots.

The Lady Vols have outscored the Lady Mocs by an average 28.5 points during coach Pat Summitt’s 38-year tenure, and Tennessee won last season’s meeting 103-43. The Lady Vols had a 19-0 run in that game to take control and finished with a school-record 15 3-pointers.

“I told our team at halftime that we have to get back to competing in games like this,” Chattanooga coach Wes Moore said. “There was a time, even when Tennessee was winning national championships, we could compete with them. We are going to try our best to get back to that point.”

SEC Launches "We Back Pat" Week

The Southeastern Conference in cooperation with its 12-member institutions announces “We Back Pat” Week, a week-long initiative focused on bringing awareness and recognition to the Pat Summitt Foundation Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and its fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

During the week of January 15-22, SEC member institutions will support the Pat Summitt Foundation Fund during their home basketball games. During the 17 women’s and 12 men’s games slated for the week, various efforts will be made to increase awareness of the Pat Summitt Foundation Fund. Twenty of these games will be televised.

“Pat Summitt is a leader both on and off the court. The establishment of the Pat Summitt Foundation only reiterates this point.” said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive. “We are pleased that the Southeastern Conference can play a small part in helping Pat reach her goals for The Foundation today and in the future.”

The Pat Summitt Foundation Fund launched November 27, 2011 by Pat Summitt after her diagnosis of early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type at the age of 59. In a videotaped statement shown during the announcement of the Pat Summitt Foundation Fund, Pat Summitt said, "Tyler and I have decided to join this battle, not just for us, but also for the millions of families affected by this disease. I have always told our players, our greatest opportunities are disguised as our greatest obstacles. It is time to treat this obstacle as an opportunity and a stepping stone to a cure."

The Pat Summitt Foundation Fund will make grants to nonprofits which provide:
• Education and awareness of Alzheimer's, its onset and treatment
• Support services to patients, their families and caregivers
• Research to treat, prevent, cure, and ultimately eradicate this disease

About The Pat Summitt Foundation Fund
Pat Summitt and her supporters have entrusted The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to facilitate the charitable work of The Pat Summitt Foundation Fund. The Fund was established to support Pat Summitt’s dream of finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. For more information or to make a donation, please visit www.patsummitt.org.

About The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee oversees more than 800 charitable funds. In the past twenty years, The Community Foundation has distributed $530 million to community programs and institutions. It is located at 3833 Cleghorn Avenue, #400, Nashville, Tennessee 37215. For more information, call 615-321-4939 or visit www.cfmt.org.

COMPLETE LIST OF GAMES DURING ‘WE BACK PAT WEEK’

Women’s Games
15 (Sunday)
*Ole Miss at Alabama, 2:00 p.m.
*Auburn at Arkansas (FSN), 1:30 p.m.
*LSU at Florida (CSS), 1:00 p.m. ET
*Georgia at Mississippi State, 2:00 p.m.
*Kentucky at South Carolina, 3:00 p.m. ET
*Vanderbilt at Tennessee (SECN), 2:00 p.m. ET

19 (Thursday)
*Alabama at Florida, 7:00 p.m. ET
*Vanderbilt at Arkansas, 7:00 p.m.
*South Carolina at Auburn, 6:00 p.m.
*Kentucky at Georgia, 7:00 p.m. ET
*LSU at Tennessee (CSS), 7:00 p.m. ET
*Mississippi State at Ole Miss, 7:00 p.m.

22 (Sunday)
*Arkansas at LSU (FSN), 2:00 p.m.
*Auburn at Mississippi State, 2:00 p.m.
*Florida at Kentucky (SECN), 2:00 p.m. ET
*Georgia at Ole Miss (CSS), 2:00 p.m.
*South Carolina at Vanderbilt (ESPNU), 12:30 p.m.

Men’s Games
17 (Tuesday)
*Auburn at LSU (ESPNU), 6:00 p.m.
*Arkansas at Kentucky (ESPN), 9:00 p.m. ET

18 (Wednesday)
*Tennessee at Georgia (SECN), 8:00 p.m. ET
*Mississippi State at Ole Miss (CSS), 8:00 p.m.

19 (Thursday)
*Vanderbilt at Alabama (ESPN/2), 6:00 p.m.

21 (Saturday)
*Alabama at Kentucky (CBS), Noon ET
*South Carolina at Auburn (SECN), 12:30 p.m.
Michigan at Arkansas (CBS), 1:00 p.m.
*Ole Miss at Georgia (SECN), 4:00 p.m. ET
UConn at Tennessee (CBS), 4:00 p.m. ET
*LSU at Florida (FSN), 6:00 p.m. ET
*Mississippi State at Vanderbilt (ESPN2), 6:00 p.m.

No. 7 Tennessee tops Auburn 73-52 in SEC opener

The Tennessee Lady Vols won going away in a game when their shots weren’t falling. Hounding Auburn into mistakes helped.

Meighan Simmons scored 20 points and the seventh-ranked Lady Vols closed on a big run in opening Southeastern Conference play Sunday with a 73-52 victory over the Tigers.

Tennessee (9-3, 1-0 SEC) came into the game last in the league in scoring defense, giving up 63.5 points a game, but forced 25 turnovers and had 12 steals.

It was more than enough to earn the Lady Vols a 34th-consecutive SEC win— and a ride back to Knoxville.

“In the first half, our offense affected our defense,” associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “We missed a lot of easy layups, and that in turn affected our defense. (Coach Pat Summitt) had a pretty stern talk with them at halftime and basically said they need to get their act together or they’re walking home, in those condensed words.

“The second half we played hard on defense, got easy layups off of our turnovers, and that’s what we need,” she said. “We need to score off of our defense.”

The Lady Vols closed the game on a 19-6 run to turn a tight contest into a blowout and win for the 27th time in the last 30 meetings with the Tigers (8-6, 0-1).

Shekinna Stricklen added 17 points for Tennessee but was disgusted with her 5-of-18 shooting performance.

“I was so frustrated,” Stricklen said. “It was like I was so wide-open, but they kept hitting the front of the rim. It was something I adjusted to in the second half. I feel like I should have attacked the ball a lot more.”

Glory Johnson had 14 points and 13 rebounds and Alicia Manning scored 10 points.

Simmons had 13 in the second half.

Camille Glymph led Auburn with 21 points, making 5 of 10 from 3-point range.

“Once I hit the first one I just tried to keep shooting,” Glymph said. “They kept falling for me.”

The Lady Vols struggled from the field, shooting just 32 percent (21 of 65) after coming in as the SEC’s second-best shooting team. However, they gave Auburn troubles on the boards and with a trapping defense that often forced the Tigers into hurried shots with the shot clock ticking down.

“That gave us fits the entire second half,” Auburn coach Nell Fortner said. “I thought their pressure was very good. It slowed us down. By the time we got it broken and tried to run something, there’s 14 seconds left on the shot clock.

“Now, you’re really out of whack,” Fortner said.

Tennessee also dominated in rebounding 49-31. The Lady Vols turned a 31-29 halftime lead into a 14-point cushion midway through the second half.

Johnson also boiled down the essence of Summitt’s halftime message.

“Basically, if we don’t get it together, we’re walking home,” she said. “And it’s a long walk. I figured this isn’t the way Tennessee plays. We know how to play and we’re not playing to our standards. When we’re not rebounding and settling for good shots instead of great shots, that’s what happens.”

Auburn managed to cut the 14-point deficit in half with Glymph hitting back-to-back 3s to make it 53-46 with 8 minutes to play.

Then, Tennessee hit 7 of 8 free throws over the next 3 minutes to spark a 9-0 run and all but put the game away.

The Lady Vols went 28 of 31 from the line to help overcome the poor shooting night.

They were coming off a 90-37 win over Old Dominion to rebound from a 17-point loss to No. 4 Stanford. It’s the first time Tennessee has entered January with three losses since the 2004-05 season.

Auburn was playing its third game in four days after going 1-1 at the Sun and Fun Classic in Miami. The Tigers have lost all three games against ranked teams and are 2-6 in SEC openers under coach Nell Fornter.

“They went into halftime feeling good about themselves and we were not really happy,” Warlick said.