Tennessee Women Struggle to Win

A poor shooting game Thursday probably will knock Tennessee out of the No. 1 spot when the women’s basketball rankings are released today.

A bad showing Sunday nearly cost the Lady Vols their first loss to an unranked team in Thompson-Boling Arena since its opening in 1987. But Tennessee salvaged a 52-48 victory over Temple, with Shanna Zolman scoring five of her 10 points in the final minutes and Shyra Ely making two free throws with 11.9 seconds left. The Lady Vols (4-1), who shot 33% in a 74-59 loss to Texas on Thanksgiving Day, made only 32% against Temple.

“I’ll take an ugly win,” Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt said. “It looks like we’ve done that a few times already this year.”

Tennessee, which took nearly five minutes to get its first points, trailed until scoring on a layup at the halftime buzzer. Temple (2-2), coached by WNBA player Dawn Staley, took its last lead of the game, at 45-43, with 4:44 left.

No. 3 Georgia 87, Santa Clara 68 -- Cori Chambers and Tasha Humphrey each scored 18 points for the Bulldogs (4-1) in the third-place game of the Rainbow Wahine Classic at Honolulu. The Broncos dropped to 1-3.

No. 5 North Carolina 84, Nevada Las Vegas 76 -- Ivory Latta had a game-high 28 points and eight assists to lead the Tar Heels (5-0) in the title game of the Lady Rebel Shootout at Las Vegas. The Rebels dropped to 2-3.

No. 7 Stanford 61, No. 12 Texas Tech 58 -- Brooke Smith, a sophomore transfer from Duke, had 22 points and freshman Candice Wiggins scored the go-ahead field goal with 1:34 left for the Cardinal (5-0) at the Leavey Center at Santa Clara, Calif. The Raiders fell to 1-1.

Texas Christian 80, No. 13 Michigan State 75 -- Sandora Irvin’s 23 points led the Horned Frogs (5-1) in the Rainbow Wahine Classic title game at Honolulu. Rene Haynes of the Spartans (4-1) missed a three-point shot that would have tied the game with less than three seconds left.

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Santa Clara 86, Stanford 76 -- Travis Niesen’s 31 points led the host Broncos (4-2) over the Cardinal (2-3), which hadn’t lost to Santa Clara since the 1989-90 season. The Cardinal, which missed its first 12 shots, shot 37.5% for the game.