Lady Vols, Georgia meet in SEC semifinals
NASHVILLE (AP) — Top-ranked Tennessee and No. 20 Georgia pulled out close victories and advanced to meet each other in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
Eighth-seeded Mississippi State tied the game late, but the Lady Vols had a 16-6 run in the final 5:39 to pull out a 67-57 win in the quarterfinals on Friday. Georgia provided the first upset of the tournament by beating fourth-seeded Florida 76-72 to reach Saturday’s game.
The Lady Vols (26-2) beat Georgia 70-67 on Feb. 12 en route to their 14-0 run through the SEC to win the league’s regular-season title.
“I’m not going to lie and say I’m excited about (playing Tennessee) tonight because we just came out of one that was a war,” Georgia coach Andy Landers said Friday. “But we’ll be excited about it.”
In other quarterfinal games, No. 15 and second-seeded LSU beat Mississippi 79-66, and sixth-seeded and 21st-ranked Vanderbilt upset No. 19 Auburn 76-74.
LSU and Vanderbilt will meet in the semifinal for the second straight year, and it’s a strong mix with the four remaining teams having each won this tournament in the last four years.
Lady Vols fans filled most of the Gaylord Entertainment Center, hoping to see their team win another crown.
“It looked like it was a home game,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said.
After Mississippi State (14-15) last tied the game at 51, Shyra Ely hit a jumper that gave the Lady Vols the lead for good.
Ely finished with 17 points. Shanna Zolman added 13 points, Davis 12 and Tasha Butts 11 for the Lady Vols. Ashley Robinson and Ely each had 12 rebounds.
Tan White led Mississippi State with 25 points on 9-of-32 shooting from the field, a career high for attempts.
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No. 20 Georgia 76, Florida 72
Sherill Baker scored 18 points and Cori Chambers added 15, helping No. 20 Georgia advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2001 when the Lady Bulldogs (21-8) went on to win the tournament.
Christi Thomas and Ebony Felder added 13 points each for fifth-seeded Georgia, which lost twice in the regular-season to Florida for the first time ever.
Florida (18-10) grabbed the lead in the early minutes of the second, but the Lady Bulldogs cut it to a point on a three-point play by Thomas and a basket by Chambers with 6:47 left. Florida scored again, and Chambers hit consecutive 3-pointers to put Georgia ahead for good at 67-64 with 4:10 to go.
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No. 15 LSU 79, Mississippi 66
Doneeka Hodges hit 5-of-8 3-pointers and scored 24 points, and No. 15 LSU (23-6) never trailed as they opened defense of their tournament title. Seventh-seeded Mississippi (17-13) failed to advance past the second round for the 11th straight year.
After Amber Watts tied the game at 2, the Lady Rebels missed 15 of their next 16 shots. They wound up shooting just 31.1 percent (24-of-77), while LSU seemingly couldn’t miss in hitting eight of its first 11. The Lady Tigers, who had been averaging a league-high 46.8 percent, finished 29-of-60 (48.3 percent).
Seimone Augustus added 20 points for LSU.
Armintie Price, the SEC’s freshman of the year, led Ole Miss with 18 points.