No. 18 Texas 69, No. 3 Tennessee 66

Posted 6:44AM on Wednesday 13th February 2002 ( 23 years ago )

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - Texas coach Jody Conradt wanted to compare her team to one of the nation's best. The No. 18 Longhorns, however, ended up teaching No. 3 Tennessee a thing or two. Heather Schreiber scored 12 points, including a 3-pointer that gave Texas (16-7) the lead for good in a 69-66 win over Tennessee (20-3) Tuesday night. Freshman Kala Bowers added 22 points, and Stacy Stephens had 12 rebounds for Texas, which had lost 13 straight games to the Lady Vols. ``I kept insisting that this is the best way at this point to measure ourselves. Tennessee and Connecticut, they are the standard right now. How do you know how you stack up unless you play them?'' Conradt said. Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, who lost seven of her first nine games against Conradt's Longhorns and still trails Conradt's all-time leading victories in women's basketball by three games, admired Texas' style in the early days of their rivalry. The Lady Vols prefer that uptempo pace but have bogged down in the half-court game recently. The Longhorns could do both Tuesday night. ``We were playing the kind of team that coach wants us to be,'' Tennessee's Michelle Snow said. ``They just gave us a taste of what we should be.'' It was a close game the whole way. Neither team could stretch its lead until Schreiber hit a 3 with 4:43 left to put Texas ahead 65-63. She scored again with 3:03 to go to extend the lead back to three after Snow made a free throw. Loree Moore's driving basket cut it to 67-66 a minute later, but that was as close as the Lady Vols could get. Tennessee missed two more shots before finally fouling Texas' Kenya Larkin with 30.1 seconds left. She made one free throw, and Tennessee called a timeout. She missed the second, Kara Lawson got the rebound for the Lady Vols but she missed a shot and then Shyra Ely missed the putback. Texas got the ball back and called another timeout with 15.7 seconds left, and LaToya Davis came up with a steal for Tennessee. But Lawson missed a jumper with 10 seconds remaining. Tennessee inbounded the ball for a final shot, but Brittany Jackson missed a 3 and Tasha Butts missed the putback as the buzzer sounded. The Texas benched erupted into cheers and the players gathered at midcourt to celebrate as the Lady Vols hung their heads and filed off the court. ``They pushed tempo and ran their offense. They made big shots,'' Summitt said. ``They came out very inspired and took it to us.'' Snow, who didn't start, led the Lady Vols with 16 points and had 10 rebounds while Ely had 14 points and Lawson and Moore each added 11. Texas' man-to-man defense affected Tennessee's shooting. After missing 22-of-27 shots in the second half at Georgia over the weekend, the Lady Vols didn't look much better. They finished 27-of-73 from the floor, and were 11-of-15 from the foul line. Tennessee was playing without junior forward Gwen Jackson, who separated her left shoulder against Georgia. An exam Tuesday showed she had a partial tear, and Summitt said she would be out for one to three weeks. Conradt has won 782 games in 33 seasons overall compared to Summitt's 779 in 28 seasons all at Tennessee. Among Division I men's and women's coaches, Conradt ranks fourth and Summitt is next tied with Texas Tech's Bobby Knight. Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Jim Phelan of Mount St. Mary's lead the list.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/2/198820