The Commodores (22-6, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) beat the Lady Vols 76-59 on Feb. 2 to end a nine-game home losing streak.

But Vanderbilt couldn't end its losing streak in Knoxville, falling to 0-17.

Tennessee (22-3, 10-2) looked vulnerable after losing Tuesday to Texas and barely beating Mississippi State on Thursday.

Lawson was the hero in that game, scoring 29 points to jump-start the Lady Vols' struggling half-court offense.

On Saturday, she answered Vanderbilt's second-half surges with driving cuts to the basket.

Vanderbilt, trailing 58-53 with 6:55 left, went ahead 61-60 on Chantelle Anderson's two free throws to finish a quick 6-0 run. Tennessee got the lead back on the next play when Lawson scored on the inbounds pass.

The Commodores got as close as 69-68 with 1:30 left on Zuzi Klimesova's three-point play. The Lady Vols gave the ball to Lawson again, and she drove to the basket to increase the lead to three.

Vanderbilt missed a chance to tie it with 41 seconds left when Tia Battle's 3-pointer clanged off the rim. Michelle Snow got the rebound, and Lawson hit two more free throws at the other end with 18.9 seconds to go to seal it.

Shyra Ely scored 13 points before fouling out for Tennessee, which has won 39 straight SEC games at home since 1996.

Anderson led Vanderbilt with 20 points despite committing four fouls. Jillian Danker added 16 points, including four 3-pointers, and McElhiney had 12. Klimesova added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Anderson's matchup with Snow in the post got most of the attention heading into the game, but Lawson's performance surpassed Anderson's ability to score easily over Snow.

Snow finished with just two points on 1-of-8 shooting from the floor with three fouls.

Tennessee was ahead 52-43 with 11:49 left after a 7-0 run started by Michelle Munoz's three-point play. Most importantly for Tennessee during the spurt was the fourth foul Anderson picked up with 12:33 to go that sent her to the bench.

But even without Anderson, Vanderbilt scrapped to regain the lead with a 10-0 run, fueled by a driving layup by McElhiney and her two free throws that made it 53-52 with 8:28 to go.

Lawson responded with a driving layup and foul to give Tennessee the lead back on the next play. The Lady Vols pushed their lead back to five points two minutes later.

After leading most of the first half, the Commodores were down by one point at halftime.

Vanderbilt was ahead by seven twice in the first half. But the Lady Vols kept chipping away at the lead, finally tying it at 22 after Brittany Jackson hit a 3 and Courtney McDaniel scored inside with 4:52 left.

Mississippi State 95, Morris Brown 45
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Sharon Fanning's Lady Bulldogs took a break from Southeastern Conference action and hosted Morris Brown College in Humphrey Coliseum Saturday night. MSU smoked the visiting Lady Wolverines 95-45 to improve its overall record to 17-9 while dropping MBC to 3-22.

In the opening half, State went on a 25-4 run to gain a 20-point lead after the game was tied at nine apiece just five minutes into the game. MSU took a 56-30 halftime lead into the locker room after shooting a red-hot 74 percent from the field.

The Lady Bulldogs finished the game shooting 56.7 percent from the field and 52.2 percent from long range. MSU had 12 three-pointers, just short of the school-record 14 set at Iowa State in November.

"We had an opportunity to improve and try some different things and for the most part we took advantage of that," said Fanning.

Although playing limited minutes compared to her 34 per game average, LaToya Thomas once again led State in scoring with 22 points. Accompanied with her 10 rebounds, the two-time all-American from Greenville, Miss., recorded her 11th double-double of the season and the 31st of her career. Thomas tied her career-high three blocks, which she has now recorded eight times.

Freshman Rebecca Kates had a career night, scoring 19 points, which included five three-pointers. The 6-1 forward from Cashion, Okla., grabbed career highs of eight rebounds and three steals while playing a career-high 28 minutes.

Freshman standout Tan White put on a dazzling show once again, this time recording her ninth double-double of the year with 16 points and 10 assists. The 5-8 guard from Tupelo, Miss., was just three rebounds and three steals shy of a quadruple-double. White's seven steals tied the career high she set at Kentucky in early January.

Also scoring in double figures for the Lady Bulldogs, sophomore Jessica Carter and junior transfer Renae Jones chipped in 10 points each. Junior Keisha Stringfellow added eight points and seven assists.

Sophomores Meagan O'Nan and Lyndi Sippel added five and three points, respectively, while freshman Charmaine Johnson added two points. Sippel, making her fourth start in place of the injured Jennifer Fambrough, grabbed four rebounds while O'Nan and Johnson each had one.

The Wolverines were led by Latonya Sherman with 11 points and six rebounds for the visitors. Jennifer Wilcoxson scored nine points for MBC while Tawanna Thomas chipped in eight.

"This is a big stretch coming up for us," said Fanning. "Our objective is to improve this week and go into LSU with the right mind set and things will take care of themselves."

The Lady Bulldogs jump back into SEC action on Thursday, Feb. 21, when they travel to Baton Rouge, La., to take on the LSU Lady Tigers in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. Catch all the action on WFCA-FM 107.9 with Bart Gregory calling the action.