No. 3 Tennessee Falls to LSU

Temeka Johnson made a free throw with 4.5 seconds remaining to help Louisiana State upset No. 3 Tennessee, 81-80, in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament Saturday at Nashville.

Kara Lawson, who had 27 points, scored the last 13 for Tennessee but her jumper bounced off the rim as time expired for the top-seeded Lady Vols (25-4). It was Tennessee’s first loss to an unranked team since it lost to Auburn in the semifinals of the SEC tournament on March 2, 1997.

Making the upset more shocking was that Louisiana State played only six players and had only seven available. Coach Sue Gunter has lost three players to torn knee ligaments during the season and a fourth player sat out the season to heal from various injuries.

“We had to make up our minds just about the time the conference started, ‘Are we going to chunk this year in because we’ve got an All-SEC center down and we’ve got two other starters down? Or are we going to suck it up and be competitors?’” Gunter said.

Lawson tied it, 80-80, with 51.1 seconds left with three free throws, after being fouled on a three-pointer. But she committed a turnover when Tennessee regained possession, and Johnson went to the line on the resulting foul.

The fourth-seeded Tigers (16-10) advanced to their first title game since 1991, when they won. LSU will play Vanderbilt.

LSU made 25 of 29 free throws; Tennessee made 17 of 18.

Johnson, who made 12 of 15 free throws, finished with 18 points and Roneeka Hodges led the Tigers with 23 points.

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No. 6 Vanderbilt 81, Arkansas 78--Zuzi Klimesova scored 21 points, including two free throws with 6.2 seconds remaining as Vanderbilt (26-6) held on to win its SEC tournament semifinal at Nashville. It was Vanderbilt Coach Jim Foster’s 500th career victory.

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No. 9 Louisiana Tech 95, Nevada 65--Ayana Walker had 19 points to lead Louisiana Tech (22-4), which shot 54.4% from the field at Ruston, La.

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No. 19 North Carolina 78, Maryland 53--Nikki Teasley scored 25 points and Coretta Brown had 23 as the second-seeded Tar Heels (23-7) won in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament at Greensboro, N.C. North Carolina advanced to play North Carolina State in today’s semifinals.

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No. 20 Colorado St. 58, New Mexico 54--Lisa Narkiewicz finished with 12 points and teammate Jasai Ferrucho scored on a driving layup and made a steal in the closing minutes to seal the victory for the Rams at Fort Collins, Colo. Colorado State (23-5) clinched the Mountain West title.

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No. 23 Cincinnati 80, Louisville 70--Debbie Merrill scored a career-high 31 points and Valerie King scored 26 for the Bearcats (24-4) in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament at Chicago. Cincinnati will play Houston in today’s semifinals.

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No. 25 Texas Christian 68, Saint Louis 57--Kati Safaritova scored 20 points for TCU in a Conference USA tournament quarterfinal at Chicago. TCU (23-5) plays Tulane in the semifinals today.

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Liberty 57, Coastal Carolina 33--Katie Feenstra, a 6-foot-8 freshman, scored 14 of her 15 points in the second half for top-seeded Liberty (23-7) at Roanoke, Va., to win its sixth consecutive Big South Conference title.

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Chapman 87, Carleton (Minn.) 74--Katy Barstow and Mel Bongiorno both scored 23 points for host Chapman (23-4) in a second round NCAA Division tournament game. The Panthers advanced to the Sweet 16 to play Pacific Lutheran of Washington (21-3) next week.