University of Tennessee Athletics
LADY VOLS DOMINATE NOTRE DAME, 89-50
March 17, 2002 | Women's Basketball
March 17, 2002
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By ELIZABETH A. DAVIS
AP Sports Writer
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee is playing the kind of defense coach Pat Summitt demands, and it's why the Lady Vols stormed through the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.
Kara Lawson scored 16 points, and Brittany Jackson added 10 in Tennessee's 89-50 victory Sunday night over Notre Dame (20-10), ending the defending national champions' season in the second round of the Midwest Regional.
The second-seeded Lady Vols (27-4) advanced to the round of 16 to face either BYU or Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, next weekend. Tennessee beat Georgia State 98-68 in the first round.
Tennessee came out with its usual aggressive offense and defense but with a relentless intensity and domination not shown in any other game this season.
"I have to compliment our perimeter and post defense. They are playing with an attitude, and it's the kind of attitude that's contagious," Summitt said. "I think they now realize what they can do."
Two big runs put the Lady Vols ahead 53-27 at halftime. They led by 30 points just 2:15 into the second half and never slacked off.
The seventh-seeded Irish (20-10), 0-14 against the Lady Vols, couldn't match Tennessee's pressure or quick shooting. The loss was their worst of the season, surpassing the 27-point defeat at Connecticut on Jan. 21.
"You can feed off the frustration of the other team when they're not getting many open looks as they're used to. It just creates a lot more emotion when you get a defensive stop or a shot clock violation," Lawson said.
After Brittany Jackson hit a 3-pointer to give the Lady Vols a 5-4 lead, Tennessee never looked back.
Le'Tania Severe's basket for Notre Dame cut it to 15-8 with 14:02 to go before halftime.
Gwen Jackson's jumper started a 13-6 run for Tennessee that ended with Ashley Robinson's three-point play that put the Lady Vols ahead 28-14.
"We just really couldn't get anything going," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said.
Michelle Snow scored 11 points in a reserve role for Tennessee, which got points from 11 players.
Snow, who has dunked three times in her career, nearly capped the game with her fourth - and first at home.
LaToya Davis got a loose ball and passed it to Snow on the fastbreak with 1:59 to go, but the ball got caught under the rim as she jumped to put it in. Notre Dame's Kelsey Wicks fouled her on the play.
"I think that may have been my best play of the game that I didn't let her dunk on me," Wicks said.
McGraw wasn't happy about Tennessee's attempt to let Snow dunk.
"I would have been really disappointed if they had dunked on us," she said.
The Lady Vols harassed Notre Dame into 25 turnovers, and grabbed 16 steals.
When their shots didn't fall, the Lady Vols were 27-for-35 from the foul line.
The Irish got as close as 11 on Severe's two free throws with seven minutes left, but Notre Dame was scoreless the next three minutes.
Tasha Butts made a shot at the halftime buzzer for a 26-point lead, Notre Dame's biggest halftime deficit of the season.
Notre Dame was led by Wicks' 10 points while Jacqueline Batteast, the Irish's second-leading scorer, was held to just five.
Summitt has been looking for a proven starting lineup and may have found it. She didn't pull any of the starters - Gwen and Brittany Jackson, Lawson, April McDivitt and Shyra Ely - until the 12:25 mark in the first half.
"No one made a mistake. They were playing super," Summitt said. "You don't substitute just to substitute."
When the reserves came in, Tennessee's pace didn't slow.
"It felt like we stayed up almost the whole game," Lawson said.
Tennessee has won 40 straight NCAA games at home and hasn't lost at home in the postseason since 1979 against Old Dominion in the AIAW tournament.
