Texas Sends Lady Vols to Third Loss of Season

Tuesday, February 12, 2002
 
By ELIZABETH A. DAVIS
AP Sports Writer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Heather Schreiber scored 12 points, including a 3-pointer that gave No. 18 Texas the lead for good as the Longhorns beat No. 3 Tennessee 69-66 on Tuesday night.

Freshman Kala Bowers added 22 points, and Stacy Stephens had 12 rebounds as Texas (16-7) snapped its 13-game losing streak against the Lady Vols (20-3).

Neither team could pull away until Schreiber hit a 3 with 4:43 left to put Texas ahead 65-63. She scored again with 3:03 to go to extend the lead back to three after Tennessee's Michelle Snow made a free throw.

Loree Moore's driving basket cut it to 67-66 a minute later, but that was as close as the Lady Vols could get.

Tennessee missed two more shots before finally fouling Texas' Kenya Larkin with 30.1 seconds left. She made one free throw, and Tennessee called a timeout.

She missed the second, Kara Lawson got the rebound for the Lady Vols but she missed a shot and then Shyra Ely missed the putback.

Texas got the ball back and called another timeout with 15.7 seconds left, and LaToya Davis came up with a steal for Tennessee. But Lawson missed a jumper with 10 seconds remaining.

Tennessee inbounded the ball for a final shot, but Brittany Jackson missed a 3 and Tasha Butts missed the putback as the buzzer sounded.

The Texas benched erupted into cheers and the players gathered at midcourt to celebrate as the Lady Vols hung their heads and filed off the court.

A win would have pulled Tennessee coach Pat Summitt within one victory of tying Texas' Jody Conradt for the most career victories among women's basketball coaches.

But it was not to be Tuesday night.

Texas used man-to-man defense that affected Tennessee's shooting. After missing 22-of-27 shots in the second half at Georgia over the weekend, the Lady Vols didn't look much better.

They finished 27-of-73 from the floor, and were 11-of-15 from the foul line.

Snow, who didn't start, led the Lady Vols in scoring with 16 points and had 10 rebounds while Ely had 14 points and Lawson and Moore each added 11.

Texas and Tennessee first played in 1978 and have played every year since 1982.

The first seven of Summitt's losses to Conradt at Texas came between 1982 and 1989. Since then, Tennessee had won 13 straight.

Conradt has won 782 games in 33 seasons overall compared to Summitt's 779 in 28 seasons all at Tennessee.

Among Division I men's and women's coaches, Conradt ranks fourth and Summitt is next tied with Texas Tech's Bobby Knight.

Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Jim Phelan of Mount St. Mary's lead the list.

Trailing by five points at halftime, Texas started the second half with a 7-0 run to take a 37-35 lead. Summitt called a timeout, and Tennessee broke the drought with a basket by Ely on the inbounds play that tied it two minutes into the half.

The Longhorns regained the lead and stretched it to 49-45 on Larkin's pull-up jumper with 13:12 remaining. But the Lady Vols rallied and tied it again at 53 on Snow's putback with 9:25 left.

Tennessee led by eight points with three minutes left before halftime, but Texas cut the lead to five going into the second half.