Tennessee Has Look of No. 1

After both coaches had said it was only another big regular-season game, not really comparable to anything that happens in March, a Final Four-like party broke out in a hallway here Sunday, and it was an all-Tennessee bash.

After the Lady Vols had beaten Connecticut, 92-81, every Tennessee player grabbed her coach, Pat Summitt, outside the locker room and hugged her, squealing like 14-year-olds.

Summitt, who called it “a great college basketball game,” laughed with them, then discovered her sweaty athletes had messed up the front of her suit, pretended to be angry, and made mock threats about the next practice.

Tennessee, ending UConn’s longest-in-the-nation home win streak at 54 games before a capacity crowd of 10,027, played 40 minutes of seamless basketball, and the Huskies played 37.

Afterward, Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma described the game’s final minutes, when Tennessee went on a 16-5 tear after a 76-76 tie, as an auto mishap.

“What happened was, when we needed big plays, we hit a speed bump, a couple of wheels came off and we sat by the road, crying, waiting for someone to come along,” he said.

No one could argue the point, not after the way Tennessee’s Semeka Randall, Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamika Catchings took over the featured game of this women’s season, assuring the No. 2-ranked Lady Vols would reclaim the No. 1 spot in the polls.

The game turned on two plays, one early and one late.

UConn’s graceful, athletic 6-foot-2 Russian sophomore, Svetlana Abrosimova, started Sunday the way she did against UCLA in November, when she scored 39.

She scored UConn’s first two baskets on layups, which must have angered the Lady Vols’ Randall, arguably the best, or at the least the most aggressive, defender in the women’s college game.

Then, with 9:26 left in the first half and Tennessee (13-1) leading, 26-23, Randall and Abrosimova began a tussle for a loose ball, both crashing to the floor, gripping the ball. The Russian appeared to come out the loser after a held ball was called, lying on the floor, gripping her head. She never seemed to recover from that play. And neither did the crowd, which booed Randall afterward every time she touched the ball.

Abrosimova had been averaging 17.4 points a game but didn’t score another basket the rest of the half and was one for 10 from the floor for the remainder of the game.

The second major play seemed to be Catchings’ three-point shot with 2:32 to play, rendering a noisy crowd silent. The shot made it 81-76, forced a UConn timeout, and Husky faithful began trudging for the exits.

Summitt didn’t have to say it, Auriemma did--Tennessee finished it like three-time national champions. “When it was time to win the game, there was no tentativeness about Holdsclaw, Randall and Catchings,” he said. “We were tentative.”

As for the boos for Randall, it was apparently like throwing gasoline on a fire. She and Holdsclaw each had 25.

“If you’re a competitor, you live for that--to thrive in a hostile environment,” she said. “I loved the boos, it was great! She [Abrosimova] and I, neither one of us wanted to let go of the ball. I guess it looked like a WWF thing, huh?”

As for Holdsclaw, who drew groan after groan from the crowd with each pull-up baseline jump shot, Auriemma said: “I don’t remember Chamique getting one easy shot tonight. She did what great players do--she made great shots under pressure.”

* UCLA, USC WIN: Timely contributions lead the Bruins over Oregon and the Trojans over Oregon State in women’s basketball. Page 9