Tennessee Has Surprise for Duke

When you’ve been to 14 Final Fours -- more than any other NCAA Division I basketball women’s team -- just getting there doesn’t hold its glamour.

Yet Tennessee’s Lady Vols, who own that record, hadn’t been to a NCAA championship game since 2000. They changed that Sunday with a 66-56 victory over Duke in a battle of top-seeded teams in the national semifinals at the Georgia Dome.

Gwen Jackson carried Tennessee (33-4) to its 10th NCAA title game since 1982 with 25 points, 15 rebounds and two blocked shots. She made seven of 13 field goal attempts and 10 of 12 free throws.

It more than made up for her first game this season against Duke when Jackson, a senior, was limited to 12 points and five rebounds.

“She didn’t do much in that game,” Coach Pat Summitt said. “But she did enough tonight to make me forget that game.”

Said Jackson, who had 16 of her points in the second half: “I felt like I’ve been more consistent this year. But what counts is when it counts. This game is special to me; I didn’t want to come off the court with any regrets.”

Duke star Alana Beard nearly stole the game from Tennessee. The junior guard-forward had a game-high 29 points, scoring the Blue Devils last 10 points. But it wasn’t enough to prevent her team from going home disappointed with a 35-2 record.

“I want to congratulate Tennessee,” Duke Coach Gail Goestenkors said. “It wasn’t a pretty game, but a tremendous game; very hard fought. Unfortunately for us, we had a stretch where we couldn’t hit shots, they pounded the ball inside, and we really had no answer for Gwen Jackson.”

The winner will play Connecticut here for the national championship Tuesday night.

When the Lady Vols played the Blue Devils in November, Tennessee was struggling to learn a new offense and Duke was eager to prove its preseason No. 1 ranking was valid. The result; a 21-point battering by Duke on the Blue Devils’ home floor.

“At first we were standing around too much,” Summitt said. “But, ultimately, it made us better at passing and cutting, which leads to better shot selection.”

Since their mid-January awakening, the Lady Vols had scored 80 or more points in 14 of 21 games and averaged 83.8 points in winning the Mideast Regional. But, until Sunday, the Lady Vols hadn’t been out of Knoxville, Tenn., since losing the SEC tournament championship game to Louisiana State at Little Rock, Ark., on March 9.

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils, who played four road games in winning the Midwest Regional, appeared to be struggling -- if you could call a 15-game winning streak struggling. Duke had averaged only 64 points a game in the regional after averaging 81.6 points leading into the regional. That’s a considerable drop-off even if you’re playing tougher competition.

So there had to be some concern for the Duke brain trust when the Blue Devils had scored only six points in the first six minutes. Then Duke rallied to take a 29-27 halftime lead on a three-point shot by Beard as time ran out.

Summitt felt like chewing nails after seeing her team trailing despite outplaying Duke. But it was not the time to chew out her players.

“I do my yelling in October, November and December,” Summitt said. “We talked about the commitment of the players, saying basically this was not the team I had seen play the last four games.”

The game remained tight the first 16 minutes of the second half. Then Tennessee, which owned the glass, 41-30, and played tight defense on the Blue Devils, who missed 20 of 32 second-half shots, was able to pull away in the final minutes.