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End of the line Tennessee stops Miss. State's run, wins SEC tournament
Posted: Monday March 06, 2000 12:22 PM
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- The Tennessee Lady Vols are ready for the NCAA tournament once again in championship style. The No. 2 Lady Vols had to rally from a 12-point deficit in the second half, but they beat No. 17 Mississippi State 70-67 Sunday to win their 10th Southeastern Conference tournament championship. "Having a chance to play in this league and go against the great players and the great coaching, I think is a valuable training ground for NCAA play," coach Pat Summitt said. "No teams in the country should be better prepared." The SEC tournament has been great preparation for the Lady Vols in the past. Three of their six national championships came after winning SEC tournament titles (1989, 1996 and 1998). The league sent a record eight teams to the NCAA tournament last season, and seven are likely to receive bids in a week led by Tennessee and Mississippi State. "We have to go in and work hard to win games," Summitt said. "There are a lot of conferences with a lot of blowouts, a lot of one-sided games. To me, your players sometimes start cutting corners. They get a little lax. In the postseason, you just can't benefit from that." Tennessee (28-3) had a chance Sunday for another learning experience. Mississippi State (23-7) was ready to become the first team since Auburn in 1997 to win four straight games to take the title, leading 56-44 with 8:01 remaining. But Summitt called her Lady Vols to the sideline during a timeout and chewed them out for playing poorly. "I told this team they didn't want to lose the way they were playing," she said. It worked. Just over a minute later, the Lady Vols went on a 12-2 run, and Kyra Elzy completed the comeback with two free throws with 55.2 seconds left that put Tennessee ahead to stay. Mississippi State, playing in its first-ever championship game, couldn't stop the run, even though coach Sharon Fanning used a couple of timeouts trying to regroup her players. It didn't help that a pro-Tennessee crowd of 10,687 cheered every basket. Tennessee's Michelle Snow made a basket to start the spurt, and Tamika Catchings took over with seven straight points. Gwen Jackson tied it at 60 with 3:21 to go when she stole an inbounds pass under Tennessee's basket, grabbed a rebound and scored. The teams were tied twice more before Elzy's free throws put Tennessee ahead to stay. Angela Harris, who finished with 24 points, gave Mississippi State one last chance with her 3-pointer with 9.2 seconds left. Semeka Randall sealed the victory with four free throws in the final 14.9 seconds, the last at the 7.9-second mark. Catchings finished with 25 points to lead Tennessee, Randall had 17 and Snow 15. LaToya Thomas, the SEC's leading scorer as a freshman, nearly carried Mississippi State to its first-ever tournament title. She scored 25 points and started the Lady Bulldogs' 13-3 run to start the second half with two quick baskets, but she fouled out with 3:21 left. Nitra Perry added 12 points for Mississippi State. Fanning said she plans to change nothing about her team as they prepare for only the second NCAA tournament bid in Mississippi State's history. Summitt said her Lady Vols must get very busy remembering how to rebound. "If we don't become a better rebounding team, we will not be in Philadelphia," Summitt said of this year's Final Four location.
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