KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Gaels of St. Mary's wanted to keep it close against Tennessee. They wound up giving the Lady Vols one of their biggest scares ever on their home floor in the NCAA tournament.

        Kara Lawson led five Lady Vols in double digits with 17 points as top-seeded Tennessee beat St. Mary's 92-75 on Sunday night in the second round of the Mideast Regional.

        The Lady Vols meet fourth-seeded Xavier in the regional semifinals Saturday in Birmingham, Ala.

        Ninth-seeded St. Mary's (26-6) came into the game having won its first-ever tournament game two days ago and on an 11-game winning streak.

        Tennessee (31-2) had never lost in 37 previous tournament games at home.

        The Gaels led much of the first half and wouldn't let the Lady Vols seal the victory until the final minutes of the game.

        Tennessee led by 49-41 at halftime and pushed the lead to 12 in the opening minutes before the Gaels started chipping away. They had Lady Vols center Michelle Snow clasping her hands in prayer on the sideline as they got as close as three twice, the last at 65-62 on a bucket by Triola Alexander at 13:27.

        Then senior Semeka Randall took over for the Lady Vols. She drove to the basket, was fouled and hit both free throws and then hit a jumper to start a 7-2 spurt that pushed the lead to 72-62 midway through the half.

        St. Mary's got within eight at 78-70 on a basket by Alexander at 6:29, but that was as close as the Gaels would get.

        Snow finished with 16 points, Ashley Robinson had 15, Randall 13 and Tasha Butts 10 for Tennessee.

Online pool and college hoops coverage at Cincinnati.com

Xavier Stories

Xavier takes center stage St. Mary's gives Tennessee a battle

• Return to Xavier front page...