University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols Beat U.S. National Team
November 07, 1999 | Women's Basketball
Kara Lawson Talks About Her Game-Winning Shot
By TOM SHARP
AP Sports Writer
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- No matter how you look at it, Tennessee's 65-64 victory over the U.S. Women's National Team on Sunday was a wake-up call for somebody.
Either the U.S. team that's tuning up for the 2000 Olympics needs to pick it up a notch, or the college basketball world had better look out for Tennessee. Maybe some of both.
"Congratulations to the Lady Vols. They were outstanding today," said U.S. coach Nell Fortner, whose team beat UCLA by 57 points Friday night in Los Angeles, flew across the country Saturday, and looked tired Sunday.
"Hopefully we'll take this game, learn from it and move forward," she said.
With the Sydney Games 10 months away, the U.S. team is still learning its way, Fortner said.
"The hardest thing is, the USA doesn't like to lose, but we're training, trying to get better," she said after her team committed 27 turnovers. "We're not there yet, anywhere close. It's OK to lose in the process. You just hope you don't lose when you get to Sydney."
The game came down to the final two possessions before 12,679 fans.
The U.S. team led 64-63 after Tennessee stole an inbounds pass and Kristen "Ace" Clement scored with 50 seconds left.
The national team tried to go inside to Lisa Leslie, who led all scorers with 18 points, but Tennessee's Michelle Snow stole the entry pass and the Lady Vols called time out with 17 seconds left.
Tennessee went to freshman Kara Lawson, whose running 8-footer banked in with 10 seconds left. Teresa Edwards of the U.S. team missed a 10-footer with a couple of seconds to go and Leslie rebounded, but she couldn't get a shot off before the buzzer.
"They just got in from the West Coast, traveled last night, didn't practice and came in to play today," Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt said.
"We got fired up to play them like most people get up to play us. It took them a while to get going. Maybe they were sluggish or didn't expect us to get up and down the floor like we did. I think it's a situation where we can learn something and they can learn something."
The loss was the first for the U.S. team in 11 games. They won eight games this fall against international competition before starting a swing through the college ranks, beginning with a 101-58 win over Stanford and the 112-55 win over UCLA.
The national team showed its stuff midway through the second half, running off 14 straight points to take a 53-42 lead with 8:42 left, but couldn't keep up the pace.
Tennessee got a five-point play on a personal foul and technical foul against Yolanda Griffith, sparking its comeback.
Eight straight points gave Tennessee a 56-55 lead with 3:45 left. Ruthie Bolton-Holifield hit a 3-pointer and Leslie scored six straight points to offset a 3-pointer by Lawson, giving the U.S. team a 64-61 lead.
Tamika Catchings deflected an inbounds pass in Tennessee's full-court press and Clement picked it up to score with 50 seconds to play, setting up the finish.
Bolton-Holifield had 11 points for the U.S. team, while Nikki McCray added 10.
Catchings and Semeka Randall each had 15 points for Tennessee and Lawson added 14.
Former Tennessee star Chamique Holdsclaw, who pulled a groin muscle in practice a couple of weeks ago, didn't play with the U.S. team.
