Tennessee, Georgia Give SEC Last Dance

This one didn’t require expert analysis. No need to call in Dick Vitale here.

Stanford interim Coach Amy Tucker, minutes after Georgia had ended her team’s 23-game winning streak, 86-76, before 23,291 was asked to explain it all.

“I’d have to say,” she said, “that we were up against a team that was better.”

Much better, it was apparent.

Stanford (29-3), unbeaten in the Pacific 10, had designs on improving the reputation of West Coast women’s basketball, but actually never came close.

The Cardinal hung around for a while, but once the NCAA tournament’s best player--Georgia point guard Saudia Roundtree--got rolling, Andy Landers’ Lady Dogs (28-4) were too fast, too far ahead . . . and just too good.

And so Georgia, the fifth-place finisher in the SEC tournament but the conference’s regular-season champion, tries to go 2-0 against rival Tennessee in the NCAA championship game Sunday.

Roundtree, the senior Naismith Award winner, was typically brilliant.

She had 26 points, seven assists, and was nine for nine from the free-throw line.

She ran Stanford off its feet, Tucker said.

“She pushed the ball up the court as well as anyone I have ever seen,” she said.

“We hoped that maybe she wouldn’t have a great shooting night, but look at the shots she made. She made shots with Jamila [Wideman] and Charmin [Smith] right on her.”

Stanford played Georgia (28-4) even until 6-foot-3 center Tracy Henderson personally boosted the Lady Dogs’ lead from 21-20 to 25-20 midway through the first half.

Georgia did end up looking back, however. Sunday beckoned. Suddenly there were turnovers, sloppy passes and missed free throws.

Georgia’s lead reached 18 points in the second half, but Stanford cut it to five, 81-76, with 1:21 to go . . . but didn’t score again.

“We played very well until we got it up to 16, 18 points,” Landers said.

“Then two things happened. First, we were surprised to be up by that much against an outstanding team. Then our players started wishing the game was over instead of playing it through to the end.”

La’Keshia Frett, Landers’ 6-3 front liner who had 22 points and eight rebounds, agreed.

“We started looking forward to Sunday, we lost focus,” she said. “But even when we were letting that big lead go, I still felt we were in control.”

Speaking of Frett, Landers’ fretting over Stanford’s vaunted depth was all for nothing. In fact, he used eight players who played 11 or more minutes. Tucker used only seven.

As for an exhausted Roundtree, she was ready for some sleep.

“What time is it, midnight?” she asked at the post-game news conference.

“I’m ready to lie down.”

End of news conference.