NCAA WOMEN’S MIDEAST REGIONAL : Tennessee’s Second-Half Surge Sinks Texas Tech

The Tennessee women’s basketball team has a bruising front line and a reputation for pounding the ball inside. So when Tennessee met Texas Tech in the NCAA Mideast Regional final Saturday, more of the same was expected from the Vols.

Wrong.

Tennessee showed its versatility during an 80-59 victory that guaranteed the Vols their first trip to the NCAA Final Four since 1991, when they won their most recent of three national titles.

Michelle Marciniak made two three-point baskets and Abby Conklin added another to lead Tennessee on a 14-6 run over the first 4:21 of the second half, whipping up the record crowd of 13,466 at the Thompson-Boling Arena and taking an insurmountable 19-point lead, 55-36.

The Vols (33-2) increased their lead to 21 points and the Raiders (33-4) never got closer than 16 after that.

“I think it broke their backs a little bit and I think it took a little bit of air out of them,” said Dana Johnson, who led Tennessee with 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Johnson, a 6-foot-2 senior center, had difficulty scoring from the field in the first half because Texas Tech had two players guarding her. But Latina Davis made three consecutive jump shots to score six of the Vols’ first eight points and Nikki McCray scored 19 points in the first half to give the Vols a 39-30 halftime lead.

“The jumpers Latina Davis hit in the beginning were very crucial,” Johnson said. “The way Nikki McCray played in the first half, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”

McCray, a senior forward who finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, was named the Mideast Regional tournament’s most valuable player.

For Tennessee’s four seniors, the victory was especially sweet because it ensured that they would not become the only class ever to spend four years at Tennessee without advancing to a Final Four. Tennessee’s inability to advance to the Final Four the past three years is one reason that the team did not have “Final Four” T-shirts ready for the postgame celebration, which many teams do. “We’ve had to eat some of those Final Four T-shirts,” Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt said.

But after Tennessee lost to Louisiana Tech, 71-68, in the 1994 Mideast Regional semifinals, Johnson hugged Summitt, promising never to let her coach down again.

“She’s a woman of her word,” Summitt said.

“We have worked very hard to reach this goal but we are not finished yet,” McCray said.

The Vols obviously have worked a lot on rebounding--they like to say, “no rebounds, no rings,”--and it showed.

Tennessee grabbed 52 rebounds, including 20 offensive rebounds, while Texas Tech had 33, including 12 on offense.

“The difference in the game was definitely rebounding,” said Marsha Sharp, Texas Tech coach. “Because of (their) size, we had trouble taking care of the inside.”

Micha Atkins, a 6-foot-1 center who averages a team-leading 18 points for the Raiders, made only one of nine field goal attempts in the first half to contribute to their nine-point, half-time deficit.

“I don’t feel as though I played as well as I could tonight and I let my teammates down,” said a tearful Atkins, who finished with six points.

Tabitha Truesdale scored 17 points and had nine assists to lead Texas Tech, the 1993 NCAA champion.

Tennessee won NCAA titles in 1987, 1989 and 1991, has been to the Final Four seven times. The crowd set a record, surpassing the 12,874 at the 1989 West Regional final at Austin, Tex.

“Keep cheering, keep believing,” Summitt told the fans after the game. “We are two more games away from hanging one more banner on the wall.”