Lady Razorbacks get it half-right

ROB KEYS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Cold spells are to be expected in January, but what Arkansas suffered through Monday night proved fatal to the Lady Razorbacks' bid for the biggest upset in program history.
After building a 13-point halftime lead against No. 2 Tennessee (12-2, 2-0 SEC), Arkansas (9-4, 0-1) went scoreless over a period of 6:55 in the second half and eventually lost 79-69 before 9,907 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The Lady Razorbacks have never beaten a team ranked higher than sixth but looked poised to knock off the Lady Vols after jumping to a 39-26 halftime lead.
But a charged-up Tennessee defense in the second half stymied the Arkansas offense and killed any upset bid.
"They were getting out and playing aggressive defense, NBA defense, all over us," sophomore point guard Amy Wright said. "It's tough to run anything when you have one arm in your gut and one hand in your eyesight."
The result of Arkansas' offensive struggles was a decisive 23-0 run by Tennessee that turned a 45-33 Lady Razorbacks lead into a 56-45 Lady Vols advantage.
"We're an explosive team, and we can put points up in bunches," said Tennessee freshman Kara Lawson, who led all scorers with a career-high 25 points. "We just played aggressive defense and got steals and were able to capitalize on that.
"When we have emotion, I think we're a tough team to play with, I think we're a tough team to beat."
Tennessee also got a career-high 24 points from 6-5 center Michelle Snow and 13 from Tamika Catchings.
Wendi Willits led Arkansas with 16 points, while Karyn Karlin had 14 and Celia Anderson 12.
Lawson scored nine of her points during Tennessee's game-turning run, including five in a row after Arkansas Coach Gary Blair was whistled for a technical foul.
After Catchings came up with a steal and layup to give Tennessee a 49-45 lead with 12:54 to play, Blair walked out to midcourt to stare down game official Karen Wilhite before he was wrapped up by another official, Art Bomengen.
Blair apparently believed Tennessee was getting away with too much hand-checking on defense.
"I told [Bomengen], 'Hey, I'm just protecting my kids, trying to show them a little bit of fight,' " Blair said.
Anderson said the Lady Razorbacks were inspired by Blair's move, but by the time Arkansas got its next possession, Lawson had made two free throws and a three-pointer to stretch the Tennessee lead to 54-45 with 12:42 to play.
Arkansas didn't get closer than seven points the rest of the way.
The Lady Razorbacks were thwarted in their comeback attempt by an inability to rebound against the significantly taller Lady Vols.
Tennessee outrebounded Arkansas 52-22, including 34-5 on the offensive end, and had a 22-6 edge in second-chance points.
The Lady Vols' dominant rebounding numbers couldn't have come at a better time, as Tennessee made just 27 of 74 (36.5 percent) shots.
"Obviously, a lot of our shots weren't going in, so we knew we needed to get some second shots," said Lawson, who matched teammate Semeka Randall with a game-high 10 rebounds.
Blair said, "The difference was Randall's and Lawson's offensive rebounds. We had no answer for the guards going in and getting the rebounds."
In the first half, it was Tennessee who didn't have an answer for an energized Arkansas team that hadn't played in a week.
Tennessee led 8-3 early and maintained a five-point cushion at 14-9 until Arkansas made its charge in the last 11:00 of the first half.
The Lady Razorbacks went on an 8-2 run and took their first lead of the game, 17-16, when Dana Cherry scored a layup on an alley-oop pass from Wright with 8:35 left in the half.
Catchings answered with a putback basket for an 18-17 Tennessee lead, then Arkansas went on an 11-0 run for a 28-18 lead with 3:34 before halftime.
Lonniya Bragg scored five points during the spurt and Cherry capped it with a pull-up jumper from 18 feet.
Tennessee trimmed the Arkansas lead to seven points twice in the final 2:29, but India Lewis' three-pointer with :03 to play in the half gave Arkansas a 39-26 halftime lead, its biggest of the game.
Lawson made a three-pointer and Snow a 10-footer to open the second half and get Tennessee within 39-31, but Arkansas managed to push its lead back to 12 when Cherry's three-point play gave the Lady Razorbacks a 45-33 lead with 17:07 remaining.
Unfortunately for Arkansas, its next score didn't come until Karlin hit from 17 feet to get the Lady Razorbacks within 56-47 with 10:12 left to play.
Arkansas returns to action Thursday at 7 p.m., when it plays host to LSU.

This article was published on Tuesday, January 11, 2000

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