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Women’s Hoops Give UT Scare in Knoxville 2/12/2006
By ELIZABETH A. DAVIS, AP Sports Writer KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Candace Parker scored 19 points and fifth-ranked Tennessee rallied to beat No. 22 Vanderbilt 70-67 on Sunday to avoid losing consecutive home conference games for the first time in nearly 20 years. The Lady Vols (22-3, 8-2 Southeastern Conference) were down 14 in the first half and used a 13-4 run in the last 5:51 to improve to 20-0 against Vanderbilt in Knoxville. No. 3 LSU earned its first victory ever here on Thursday night and snapped Tennessee’s 64-game SEC home winning streak. Vanderbilt (17-8, 6-5) led nearly the entire game behind a strong inside game from Liz Sherwood, who had 20 points. Tennessee finally found its defense and offense down the stretch. The Commodores were ahead 63-56 on Carla Thomas’ basket with 6:14 remaining. Then Sidney Spencer had a jumper and Shanna Zolman made a pair of free throws to get the Lady Vols going. Nicole Jules scored for Vanderbilt, and Thomas had a basket around five points by Parker. Spencer scored again to tie it at 67 with 2:50 left. Vanderbilt did not score again. Alexis Hornbuckle made two free throws with 2:22 to go for a 69-67 lead, and Tennessee held on. Sherwood was whistled for her fifth foul with 1:51 left, but Parker missed both free throws. Cherish Stringfield missed a 3 for Vanderbilt, which got the ball back with 32 seconds left after Tennessee had a shot clock violation. Spencer made the second of two free throws, and the game ended when Parker caught Caroline Williams’ deflected 3-point attempt. Spencer finished with 11 points and Hornbuckle had 10. Jules had 12 points for Vanderbilt while Stringfield had 11 and Thomas 10. Foul trouble caused big problems for the Commodores. The Dores were whistled for 22 fouls on the day to Tennessee’s 13 fouls. Junior Carla Thomas also fouled out, while Cherish Stringfield and Dee Davis ended the game with four fouls. No Lady Vol had more than two fouls in the contest. The Lady Vols tied it at 43 with 14:54 remaining after a quick 5-0 run, but the Commodores were able to stretch their lead back to seven. They pushed it to as many as nine before Tennessee took over. Tennessee has not lost two straight SEC games at home since the 1984-85 season to Kentucky and Georgia. Vanderbilt had won four straight since losing at LSU on Jan. 26. Vanderbilt will enjoy a bye on Thursday before returning home to Memorial Gymnasium to play host to Georgia on Sunday, Feb. 19, at Noon CT. The game will be televised by FSN South. |