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Friday, Nov. 26 10:30pm ET
Snow tops Tennessee with 18 points | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- The Tennessee Lady Volunteers are halfway home from a brutal West Coast trip. Tamika Catchings, sidelined by foul trouble for part of the second half, hit a decisive 3-pointer with 1:09 remaining as No. 5 Tennessee scored the final 11 points to defeat Stanford 79-73 Friday night. The Lady Vols, who trailed Stanford (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 23 AP) by five points with three minutes remaining, now have a day to rest before taking on No. 4 UCLA. "This is a big win for the whole team, because we know how hard it is to come on the road and play at a place like Stanford," Catchings said. "And now we have UCLA next. Our coaches were right when they told us how hard it is to win on the road. Now we believe them for ourselves." Catchings, who left the game with her fourth foul with nine minutes remaining, gave the Lady Volunteers a 75-73 lead with her 3-pointer. Michelle Snow added a follow shot and Kara Lawson had two free throws in the closing seconds. Snow finished with 18 points and Catchings had 17 for Tennessee (2-1), which trailed 73-68 with three minutes remaining. Stanford was trying for its second upset of a Top-10 team within a week, having beaten Iowa State on Sunday. "I thought we played a great 37 minutes. Unfortunately, we made key turnovers at the end of the game," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "They are extremely aggressive, extremely athletic and they disrupted our offense." Carolyn Moos had 16 points, including the fifth 3-pointer of her career, for Stanford (2-1). Jamie Carey hit four 3-pointers and had 14 points, and Milena Flores also had 14 points for the Cardinal. But Flores was forced into several mistakes in the final three minutes as the Tennessee trap focused on her. "Maybe I'll feel better about it tomorrow, but right now I feel pretty lousy," Flores said. "Tennessee feeds off their defense. When they get a stop, they get excited, and that's how they get momentum." Tennessee out-rebounded Stanford 40-26 and hit 23 of its 27 foul shots in the win. It was a far different game than last season, when Stanford missed 17 of its first 18 shots and fell behind by 38 points at halftime in a 98-62 loss in Knoxville. "We've obviously come a long way from last year, but it would be an insult to the team if I said I was happy," VanDerveer said. "Obviously this game shows a big improvement for us, but we have raised expectations for this year." Trailing 41-39 at halftime, Tennessee regained the lead briefly with 14:30 left on a driving layup by Lawson -- only to have Carey hit a 3-pointer. Three minutes later, Lawson hit a 3-pointer to break a 54-54 tie and Carey immediately responded with another 3-pointer. Moos, a 6-foot-6 center, gave Stanford a 70-68 lead with 4:07 remaining with a 3-pointer from in front of the Cardinal bench. And Carey then added a 3-pointer from about seven feet behind the arc to increase that lead to 73-68. But Tennessee held Stanford scoreless the rest of the way, and the Lady Vols finally caught up on Catchings' 3-pointer -- the 11th lead change of the second half. "This is a great win for us. Stanford made some incredible shots, the kind that can break you. Mentally it was good for us to keep coming back," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. "We made the shots when we needed them at the end." Tennessee opened an early 19-8 lead, using tight defense to force Stanford into rushing its shots, but a pair of driving layups by Moos finally loosened the Lady Vols' pressure and gave the Cardinal perimeter shooters more space. Flores had five points during a 17-6 run that turned a seven-point Tennessee lead into a 35-31 lead for Stanford. The run ended with a three-point play by Moos and a 3-pointer from way behind the arc by Carey. | ALSO SEE Womens College Basketball Scoreboard
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