CLEVELAND - Never give up. Don't ever give up.

The late Jim Valvano's words rang true for Tennessee's Lady Vols on Sunday night.

When timeout was called with 7 minutes, 13 seconds to play in their NCAA tournament semifinal game against North Carolina, Tennessee's reserves exploded off the bench to greet the players at half-court on the way to the huddle.

The way Cait McMahan was hopping around, you'd have thought the Lady Vols had just beaten Vanderbilt at the buzzer instead of being on the brink of seeing their season end.

The fact that UT had just scored two consecutive baskets - a rare occurrence at that point - was cause enough to celebrate.

A 48-36 deficit had been trimmed ever so slightly to 48-40. Hope was alive. Bruce Pearl, sitting a couple of rows behind the bench, could tell it.

"At that point,'' head coach Pat Summitt confided later, "I still felt like there was a lot of time and a lot of possessions left.

"We got a lot of energy from our bench and our staff was tremendous, saying 'We can do this. We will do this!' ''

And they did do it.

They came back off the mat to beat North Carolina 56-50 to earn the right to play for a national championship on Tuesday night against Rutgers.

When North Carolina's Erlana Larkins scored to put the Tar Heels up 48-36 with 8:18 to play, I wasn't picturing the Lady Vols hanging around on Tuesday night.

Points were hard to come by all night, even before Tennessee and North Carolina flogged each other into a 22-21 halftime stalemate.

In the night's first semifinal, LSU shot 26.4 percent from the field against Rutgers. Geaux Tigers, as in geaux home.

Tennessee shot 27 percent against North Carolina and yet lives to tell about it.

How? Why? This was about persistence. This was about never giving up.

And it started at the top.

"Pat was just awesome in the huddles,'' said assistant coach Holly Warlick. "I've been around her a long time and that's about as good as she's been.

"There wasn't anything negative. It was all giving them energy. Don't give up. We can do this. She believed it. They believed it.''

Summitt's been in a few tough situations over the years. One of them was a regional final at Nashville in 1998. The Lady Vols were 12 down with six minutes to play against none other than North Carolina.

They refused to give up. They rallied to win and a week later captured a national championship in Kansas City.

So Summitt had a reservoir to draw from and she was able to share it with her team Sunday night in another tough situation.

"The biggest thing,'' said junior Nicky Anosike, "was the confidence coach had in us the whole game.

"You can just feel it, how the coaches are feeling. I think they believe in us and that transferred over to us.''

The Lady Vols transferred that confidence and energy to their defense and rebounding. It was lights out for the Tar Heels

The nation's highest-scoring team managed a meager two points over the final 8-plus minutes. Two free throws. Zero field goals.

"Our defense was the key,'' said Summitt.

"At the eight-minute mark I said, 'We're not leaving here without a national championship.' And I just saw a whole different attitude with this team.''

Candace Parker, the team's star, got the message loud and clear.

"To be honest,'' Parker said, "we were just looking at each other and just saying all the stuff we've been through to get to this point. And to not seize the moment would just have been a total waste.''

Consider this moment seized, not wasted. Tennessee refused to give up.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.