Tennessee 68, Brigham Young 57

AMES, Iowa (AP) -- Freshman Shyra Ely made sure Tennessee got past the third round of the NCAA tournament.

Ely scored the first 12 points of a game-turning 15-0 run late in the first half and finished with 21 as second-seeded Tennessee beat 11th-seeded Brigham Young 68-57 in a Midwest Regional semifinal Saturday night.

Tennessee (28-4) had lost to Xavier in the regional semifinals last year, the Vols' earliest NCAA tournament exit in seven years.

Thanks to Ely and solid play from freshmen Brittany Jackson and Michelle Munoz, the Lady Vols survived this time and advanced to a regional final for the 17th time in 21 years.

Tennessee will play the winner of Saturday's Vanderbilt-North Carolina game on Monday night.

BYU (24-9), which upset sixth-seeded Florida and third-seeded Iowa State in the first two rounds, was trying to become the first No. 11 seed to reach the regional finals.

The Cougars played gamely and trailed by only six with less than 3 1/2 minutes left, but their strength, outside shooting, failed them. They got good shots. They just did not go down.

Tennessee's first-half run erased a 29-20 deficit and sent the Lady Vols to a 35-29 lead. BYU continued to struggle early in the second half, and Tennessee stretched its lead to 47-34 on a jumper by Munoz.

At that point, Tennessee had outscored BYU 27-5 since the Cougars led by nine. The Lady Vols then held off repeated comeback attempts by BYU to keep their Final Four hopes alive.

Munoz finished with eight points, all in the second half. April McDivitt also scored eight and Jackson had six. Tennessee survived an off night by season scoring leader Kara Lawson, who was 1-for-12 and scored only five points.

Melanie Pearson led BYU with 23 points. But Erin Thorn, who shot 16-for-24 in the first two rounds, scored only eight on 3-for-22 shooting. She was 2-for-18 from 3-point range.

BYU shot just 32.3 percent, but managed to stay in it even after Tennessee built its 13-point lead.

Pearson scored seven straight points to cut the lead to 47-42, and the Cougars trailed 50-45 when Pearson scored on a baseline drive with 8:45 left. Tennessee got the lead back to 10 before BYU twice cut it to six, the last time at 60-54 on Stacy Jensen's runner with 3:25 left.

The Cougars got no closer and Tennessee made enough free throws to stay in control.

BYU did what it had to do early to stay in the game. The Cougars took care of the ball, patiently ran their offense and kept Tennessee in a half-court game that seemed to frustrate the Lady Vols.

Pearson's pull-up jumper finished a 6-0 run that gave BYU a 17-13 lead. The Cougars later scored nine straight points to open a 26-17 lead on Danielle Cheesman's hook shot, and Thorn's 3-pointer made it 29-20 with 5:21 left in the half.

BYU then failed to score on its next 10 possessions - five turnovers and five missed shots - and Ely took over.

She made a layup, scored inside on a turnaround and converted a three-point play off a layup in transition to cut the lead to 29-27. And, she wasn't finished.

Ely converted another three-point play off a drive, then scored on a spinning 1-on-1 move to give the Lady Vols a 32-29 lead. Moore's 3-pointer capped the 15-0 run, making it 35-29.

Lisa Osguthorpe hit one of two free throws to end BYU's drought, leaving the Cougars down 35-30 at the half.

South Carolina 79, Drake 65

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Shaunzinski Gortman and Jocelyn Penn each had 19 points as third-seeded South Carolina beat seventh-seeded Drake 79-65 in an East Regional semifinal on Saturday.

The Gamecocks (25-6) earned their first trip to a regional final, where they will face the winner of Saturday's game between No. 1 seed Duke and fourth-seeded Texas. The Gamecocks, who were 11-17 last year, are making their first NCAA tournament appearance in 11 years.

Drake (25-8) was looking for its first trip to a regional final since 1982.

South Carolina built a 16-point halftime lead, and then answered every Drake charge as the Bulldogs scrapped to get back into the game.

Trailing 51-33 early in the second half, Drake got consecutive 3-pointers from Erin Richards and Stephanie Schmitz, followed by consecutive inside scores from Carla Bennett to close to 53-43 with 12:12 to play.

But the Bulldogs couldn't overtake the Gamecocks, who answered with an inside score from Teresa Geter. Over the next three minutes, Drake got within 10 three times only to have the Gamecocks answer with a score on their next possession.

Drake got as close as 69-61 late, but Gortman hit a 3 from the top with 4:03 left and scored seven unanswered points to push the margin to double figures.

Bennett had 20 points to lead Drake.

South Carolina's man-to-man defense controlled Drake in a brisk first half that saw just six fouls called. The Bulldogs shot just 32 percent and had 12 turnovers.

The Gamecocks scored 13 points off turnovers - the last two coming on Gortman's layup after a turnover by Schmitz just before halftime - as the Gamecocks methodically pulled away for a 39-23 lead at the break.

South Carolina scored 14 of its last 17 points in the paint before halftime. Seven players scored for the Gamecocks, who shot 55 percent in the half.

Vanderbilt 70, North Carolina 61

AMES, Iowa (AP) -- Vanderbilt relied on its two strengths, defense and Chantelle Anderson, to move within one game of the women's Final Four.

Anderson had 22 points and 12 rebounds, and top-seeded Vanderbilt slowed one of the nation's highest-scoring teams in beating fourth-seeded North Carolina 70-61 Saturday in a Midwest Regional semifinal.

Vanderbilt (30-6) held on after losing most of a 13-point halftime lead and moved into Monday night's regional final against Southeastern Conference rival Tennessee, the No. 2 seed.

Tennessee, which split two regular-season games with Vanderbilt, advanced with a 68-57 victory over 11th-seeded Brigham Young.

Vanderbilt led most of the game, but North Carolina (26-9) never let the Commodores get comfortable until the final two minutes, even though the Tar Heels fell well below their 80.5 scoring average.

Vanderbilt has held its first three NCAA tournament opponents to an average of 44.7 points. North Carolina shot only 34 percent against Vandy's tough match-up zone.

Jenni Benningfield and Ashley McElhiney each scored 13 points and Jillian Danker had 12 for Vanderbilt. Coretta Brown scored 19 for North Carolina, but Nikki Teasley finished with only three on 1-for-14 shooting, though she did have nine assists.

North Carolina trailed just 53-49 when Leah Metcalf hit a 3-pointer with 6:22 left. But the Tar Heels went more than 4 1/2 minutes before scoring again and Vanderbilt ran off eight straight points to get out of danger.

Anderson sank four free throws, Zuzi Klimesova hit a 17-footer and McElhiney dropped in two free throws for a 61-49 lead with 1:53 remaining.

Vanderbilt's last basket was a 3-pointer by McElhiney with 7:32 left. The Commodores scored their final 19 points on free throws and finished 22-for-29 at the line.

North Carolina stayed close despite Vanderbilt's 60 percent shooting in the first half and trailed 26-22 after Brown scored with 4:59 left.

But McElhiney, Klimesova and Danker each hit a 3-pointer as Vanderbilt ended the half with a 9-1 run to take a 35-23 lead. The Commodores played the final 4:35 of the half without Anderson, who went to the bench with her second foul.

North Carolina closed quickly in the second half, outscoring Vanderbilt 11-3 to cut the lead to 38-36 with 15:50 to play. The Tar Heels trailed 42-40 after Chrystal Baptist scored over the 6-foot-6 Anderson, but never got any closer, though it took Vanderbilt until the 3:03 mark to get the lead back to double digits.