NORFOLK, Va. -- Imaginary dialogue in the first 10 minutes of Tennessee's 66-53 victory over George Washington on Tuesday night at the Ted Constant Convocation Center:

Colonials: "We feel like taking a really bad beating tonight. How about it?"

Lady Vols: "We just beat Army 102-54. It wouldn't be appropriate to embarrass a former commander-in-chief two days later."

Colonials: "We insist."

Lady Vols: "You're on your own."

Never mind how intent the Colonials seemed on disaster in the second round of the NCAA women's tournament. The Lady Vols had no interest in abetting their self-destructive tendencies after the first six minutes.

After building a 16-2 lead, UT seemingly lost interest in turning their second-round game into a continuation of their first-rounder. That lack of interest became the topic of UT coach Pat Summitt's halftime address.

"Once we got a comfortable lead, I just think we let up," Summitt said. "You never quit in postseason. You never give someone a chance to make a run at you."

But the run came way too late for the Colonials.

It didn't take George Washington coach Joe McKeown long to sense his team's dilemma. After witnessing three turnovers in his team's first four possessions, he called timeout.

By then, the Colonials were only down 5-0. They never got any closer.

UT had a dozen points before George Washington had one. UT had 16 points before George Washington had a field goal.

Not only did the Colonials shoot blanks, they drew a blank on the scouting report, which emphasized, "Don't give (Shanna) Zolman open looks."

Uncovered on the perimeter, Zolman scored 14 of her game-high 19 points in the first half. At the other end, the Colonials' offense was either jittery or lethargic in the face of UT's aggressiveness.

But UT didn't sustain its defensive aggressiveness, and a wobbly George Washington began to steady itself.

The Colonials tightened up their defense. They made UT look bad. They even outscored the Lady Vols 30-26 in the second half.

They just couldn't shoot well enough to make a game of it. That was evident early in the second half after George Washington had cut a 40-23 UT halftime lead to 10 points.

The Colonials had three opportunities to narrow the deficit. They failed miserably.

First, Jessica Simmonds missed on a wide-open 10-foot set shot. Next, Kimberly Beck pulled up on a two-on-one fast break and missed badly on an open 3-pointer. Then, the Colonials failed to get off a shot in the required 30 seconds.

Following that three-possession sequence, it was obvious George Washington wasn't up to an upset.

"By the time we got our arms around this game and made a run, we just ran out of gas," McKeown said. "A lot of teams when they got down by 20 would have folded."

Not only can McKeown revel in his team's resilience against a bigger, more talented opponent, he can look forward to next season when George Washington will return four starters and add three high school All-Americans.

And Summitt can look forward to next weekend's regional in Cleveland, hopeful that her team had learned a lesson.

"I think this was probably good for us to have a team come at us for 40 minutes," Summitt said. "Once George Washington settled down in the first half, I thought they were pretty good from then on."

Fortunately for the Lady Vols, George Washington was down by 14 before it settled down.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com