NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Given one more chance, Kara Lawson found her redemption in the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Lawson scored a career-high 32 points and hit a runner in the lane with one second left to give third-ranked Tennessee a 76-75 victory Saturday night over Mississippi State (No. 11 ESPN/USA Today; No. 10 Associated Press) in the semifinals.

The senior guard came through a year after the ball was swiped from her in a similar situation in an 81-80 defeat against Louisiana State in this same round.

''You always remember those situations,'' Lawson said. ''But you're always happy when you can be in those type of situations again.''

Tennessee (28-3) overcame 34 points by Mississippi State's LaToya Thomas in an intense, back-and-forth game and reached the SEC finals for the first time since 2000 and 15th time overall. Tennessee, now 21-0 against Mississippi State, will try for its 11th tournament championship on Sunday against Louisiana State.

LSU advanced with a 78-69 victory over Vanderbilt.

''Unfortunately in this situation, only one team gets to go on, but what I told my team was there were no losers in this one,'' Mississippi State coach Sharon Fanning said. ''We learned how to compete and we hope that this will carry over to the (NCAA) tournament.''

Tennessee needed almost everything it had to subdue Fanning's team.

Mississippi State (23-7) led by 11 points early in the second half and looked to have a chance to finally end its drought against Tennessee when Tan White hit a jumper to give MSU a 75-74 lead with a minute to play.

Lawson then missed a jump shot and Mississippi State's Doceide Warren went to the line for a one-and-one with 22.8 seconds left. She missed the shot, though, and Lawson made the Lady Bulldogs pay.

She dribbled near midcourt as time ran down, then started toward the basket against White with 10 seconds left. Getting a screen from Shyra Ely, Lawson worked her way inside the free-throw line, leaned in and made the shot.

''That's my favorite situation, down one,'' Lawson said. ''Because you can either be the hero or the goat. I don't want to be the goat.''

Ely had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Tennessee and helped limit Mississippi State to just two second-chance points in the second half. MSU scored 17 points off offensive rebounds in the first half.

''I think it was just going harder,'' Ely said. ''My main focus, like every other game, is going to the boards and getting to every ball I can get to.''

Thomas shot 11-for-20 and carried Mississippi State for most of the game. She scored 11 consecutive Mississippi State points during one stretch to prevent Tennessee from pulling away, but did not score again after hitting a jumper with 4:15 left to draw MSU to 68-66.

Baskets by Lawson and Ely stretched the lead to 72-66, but the Lady Bulldogs came back again, White capping a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer to give her team a 73-72 lead with 2:03 remaining. Tasha Butts' two free throws put Tennessee up 74-73 with 1:25 left.

Fanning said her team did what she wanted on Lawson's game-winner.

''I was thinking guard her and don't let Lawson take an uncontested shot,'' she said. ''We knew the screen was coming and Tan did a good of guarding her, but somehow she got through with that right hand. What can you say? She made the play with people guarding her.''

Mississippi State got a huge lift going into halftime when Warren banked in a running 55-footer at the buzzer to put the Lady Bulldogs up 42-33. That was something Lady Vols had seen before.

Auburn's Nancy Derrick had made a similar halftime shot against Tennessee in the quarterfinals Friday, but it was waved off. Connecticut's Diana Taurasi made a 60-footer at the halftime buzzer in Tennessee's 63-62 overtime defeat against the Huskies on Jan. 4.

Mississippi State suffered a blow in the first half when starting guard Blessing Chekwa crumbled to the floor grabbing her right knee after making a jump shot. She was helped to the locker room and watched the second half from behind the bench.

The severity of her injury had not been determined.