MEMPHIS-The Virginia women's basketball team made an early second-half run, but a physically overpowering Tennessee squad regained a huge lead and rolled into the NCAA Elite Eight. The top-seeded Lady Volunteers outrebounded and outshot the fourth-seeded Cavaliers to take a 77-56 victory before a predominantly pro-Vol crowd at The Pyramid in Memphis Saturday.
Tennessee (31-3) used point guard Kristen "Ace" Clement's suffocating defense on Virginia counterpart Renee Robinson to force six Cav turnovers in the first four minutes and jumped out to a commanding 15-2 advantage. The Lady Vols never looked back, leading the whole way as the Cavaliers (25-9) heartily attempted to overcome the early deficit but could only cut it to three.
Virginia was unable to curtail Naismith Player of the Year Tamika Catchings, who scored a game-high 28 points, and could not limit the Lady Vols on the boards, where they outrebounded the Cavs, 42-31.
"Starting in the opening minutes, our intensity on the defensive end was great," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. "Ace Clement did an excellent job on Robinson early. I thought the ball pressure and the intensity of our team defensively was something that disrupted Virginia's offensive execution."
After falling behind by as many as 18 in the first half, the Cavaliers stormed back to cut the deficit to 45-42 with 13 minutes to go in the second half. Senior power forward Lisa Hosac drained two three-pointers and junior small forward Svetlana Volnaya had another trey during a run that forced Tennessee out of its zone defense.
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