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Lady Vols slam Kentucky after sluggish start

Parker dunk highlights day in which Tennessee forces 36 turnovers

By Dan Fleser (Contact)
Originally published 06:56 p.m., February 3, 2008
Updated 09:29 p.m., February 3, 2008

The directive came from Pat Summitt and it was clear.

At halftime Sunday against Kentucky, the Tennessee women's basketball coach essentially told star player Candace Parker: Go to the rim.

The resulting dramatics were all Parker's. The Lady Vols All-American went to the rim and beyond for the seventh dunk of her career in Tennessee's 79-51 victory over the Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Parker chased down a lead pass from Alberta Auguste and turned to find herself alone on the baseline with no Wildcats in the vicinity.

"I really didn't think about it that much,'' Parker said. "I turned around and nobody was there. I was like 'OK' "

The one-handed jam with 8:20 remaining was a welcome highlight for the announced crowd of 19,259. Before Parker threw down, the fans had been watching a game that was more throwback in nature.

The dunk was Parker's first since a Jan. 6 game last season against Connecticut in Hartford, Conn. She hadn't dunked at home since Dec. 20 last season versus West Virginia. That time she drew a technical foul for popping her jersey afterward.

With the crowd still buzzing, Alexis Hornbuckle produced a worthy follow-up. UT's senior guard corralled a loose ball, hurdled teammate Vicki Baugh and went from the foul lane to the opposite basket in a matter of moments, scoring a driving layup.

The actual points were more useful to the Lady Vols than the style points. The back-to-back baskets pushed the Lady Vols' lead past 20 points for the first time. They didn't do as much for their shooting percentage, which needed more help to finally inch above 40 percent.

Part of the problem was Kentucky's scrappy defense and rebounding, which No. 2 Tennessee (20-1, 7-0 SEC) got a taste of in the teams' first meeting, a 65-40 Lady Vols' victory in Lexington, Ky., Jan. 17.

Summitt also pointed out that Parker and Hornbuckle weren't there usual selves in the first half. "I said we go as Candace Parker and Alexis Hornbuckle go,'' Summitt said. "They have to bring intensity from the opening tip to the last possession. We saw what happens when they do that."

The Lady Vols followed up a 32-point first half with 47 in the final 20 minutes. They could've done more damage, considering they had 23 more shot attempts than Kentucky in the second half (43-20).

Along with the dunk, the difference in Parker was 12 of her game-high 20 points in the second half and 6-for-8 shooting from the floor.

"Coach Summitt told me to go strong to the hoop,'' Parker said. "She said I needed to go inside the paint and take over and stop shooting fadeaways."

Hornbuckle's response was more pronounced. She scored all of her 13 points and grabbed all of her six rebounds in the second half. With four more assists, she topped off her team high of six. She added two steals and finished with three, moving within 15 of passing UT's all-time steals leader Bridgette Gordon, who had 333.

"In the first half, I don't know what it was,'' Hornbuckle said. "It was like I didn't have any energy, which is rare for myself. It was very frustrating. So, of course, Coach yelled at me. It woke me up a little bit."

While Tennessee was rousing its key players, Kentucky (11-11, 5-3) was figuring out what to do without starting point guard Amber Smith, who went down with a right knee injury in the final second of the first half.

UT's Auguste was chasing Smith and bumped into her as Smith was going up for a driving shot. The 5-foot-5 freshman ended up on the floor and had to be helped to the bench.

"I know she did a hop step,'' Auguste said. "She was yelling before I hit her."

The first prognosis for Smith was a sprained knee. The initial adjustment was to move starting guard Samantha Mahoney to the point position.

The Wildcats already had 19 turnovers with Smith. Without her, Tennessee took even more defensive chances and gathered 11 of their 19 steals in the second half. Kentucky finished with 36 turnovers, the most by a UT opponent this season.

"They were gambling,'' Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said. "They were not doing a lot of fundamentally sound stuff there. Everyone was rolling up on the ball, and we couldn't make very good passes. It was a tough situation."

Mahoney scored a team-high 18 points and shot 6-for-9 from the floor. But she also had seven turnovers, four as the emergency point guard.

"With them cranking up the pressure and really getting out in the passing lanes, it was disturbing to our offense,'' she said.

Auguste benefitted from the circumstances, recording four of her game-high six steals after halftime. She had 11 points and four assists, two days after suffering a strained left biceps.

"I'm a warrior; I'm back,'' Auguste said. "I got hurt. I fought threw it."

Dan Fleser covers Lady Vols basketball. He may be reached at 865-342-6288.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

       33 Comments

Posted by bmaples on February 3, 2008 at 10:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)

(Dan -- Need to turn on that secondary spell-check, otherwise known as proof-reading.)

Glad for the win over the Lady Cats. As someone who lives in Bluegrass Country, it's nice. Now to get the male version later this week!

Posted by 98reax on February 3, 2008 at 11:07 p.m. (Suggest removal)

What a sloppy game that was for 36 minutes. It was no fun at all to watch until the dunk, then the steals, then Lex came to life. The Bird played a nice game. The stripes made the game almost unbearable. I don't like to question the officiating, but some of those calls were ridiculous.

Posted by ajbake on February 3, 2008 at 11:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)

This is a poorly written article. Clean it up Dan!

Posted by yemmusdarb on February 4, 2008 at 1:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I love how everyone loves to critique actual writers and their grammar / journalism skills. Listen people, this is a free website. Stop complaining. They're putting information out for us to read and all people want to do is bash it. Everyone has typo's and grammar issues occassionally, so unless you feel like creating another free website to dish out all this free info with ERROR-FREE PERFECTION..... just shutup and read. Life goes on!

Posted by pinesvol on February 4, 2008 at 6:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Wrong yemmusdarb - it is important that the pros among us (KNS) are held to a higher standard than the rest of us (posters). Someone IS paying for this site or it wouldn't be here, by the way. And you are right, life does go on! Does that mean we shouldn't try to improve matters even a little bit (like this)?

Posted by eduardo on February 4, 2008 at 8:34 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Lady Vol basketball, I mean fake basketball. Big whoop the rest of the country really care about women's bball don't they. Give me a break! The only people that care about it is the News senseless and the snooze machine. And don't forget about the panty wasted so called men in this town. Really hard to dunk a small ball if you're 6'7 hey Mikki Deerstoner!

Posted by cp3fan on February 4, 2008 at 8:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)

WAY 2 GO CP3!!!!!!!! THAT IS HOW SHE DO. GO LADY VOLS

Posted by adimatteo on February 4, 2008 at 10:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)

great game, lets keep fingers crossed, they stay healthy, we especially need Alexis to be ok, shes so solid,and brings so much speed,e tc...
Keep it up ladies, we run out ofthings to say,but what you all do is not easy,and it takes lots of work, and time, it is truly appreciated. Go Lady Vols

Posted by RocketVol on February 4, 2008 at 10:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)

For the record (by the way, this is directed to AirForceOne), we are now tied in Tennessee-v-Kentucky Basketball this year: it's 1 win a piece. Looking forward to the final 2 contests to see who really is the overall dominant basketball school.

Eduardo, you are a dork. The women's ball is 1-in. smaller in circumference which is nearly negligible on diameter. I.e, it's about 0.30-in smaller in diameter or 150 mils on radius. At 20-ft, a basketball's path (say 30 feet) can only be off by 0.024 degrees from what a men's ball is. So, the accuracy delta is minimal if not NEGLIGIBLE! The size difference of the women's ball is a weight issue as weight is proportional to volume (a function of the radius to the third power). Geez I hate it when people can't do stupid math.

By the way, "fake" basketball is a slam dunk. Hell, I can slam the ball through a hole (I never understood why people cheered for that stupid act...put a goalie in the way and I'll cheer). My kid can throw a paper-wad into the garbage can standing on top of it. A fade-away at 20 feet with two hands in your face?...that's another story.

Posted by wewhite on February 4, 2008 at 10:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)

"The resulting dramatics were all Parker's."

Dramatics? I think you need to stop listening to Dubya speeches, Dan, and focus more on your writerizingness.

Posted by dash727 on February 4, 2008 at 11:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Correction, it is UT 3, kitty cats 1 including football and 2 Lady Vol wins. The men will handle business soon enough. eduardo, does anyone in your little world care about you? Are you a fake citizen? Should we call the INS and have you deported. Where did the computer come from, a friend on the street that sold it to you while you were in line at Weigels? Go to bama with your ridiculous comments, join one of their websites, and possibly find a job picking cotton or lettuce.

Posted by RocketVol on February 4, 2008 at 12:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Thanx dash on the fact that it's UT 3 UK 1 - didn't realize women already spanked them once before - I'm asleep at the wheel.

Posted by BloneyBoy on February 4, 2008 at 4:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey UconnFan. I noticed you didn't comment on the dunk this article. Let's remember a previous post of yours and my reply:

Posted by UconnFan on January 31, 2008 at 11:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Nobody can jump, lol, uconn fans were shown video last night of maya moore(6ft) and tina charles(6 ft 4 inches) dunking,, i bet you cant dunk a basketball,,
REPLY:
I can if it's on video and the camera is at such an angle that the trampoline doesn't appear in the shot. Typical geno hype. Greaser.

'nuff said

Posted by yemmusdarb on February 5, 2008 at 2:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)

stop the presses!!! UconnFan went on record!!!

(que: cricket sounds)

Posted by yemmusdarb on February 5, 2008 at 2:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)

pinesvol: I am not wrong. Someone is paying for the site, but it is not us. My point was people make mistakes. Are you saying KNS writers aren't human? If you are, then I guess I AM wrong. Otherwise, don't treat me like a child and tell me I'm wrong when I'm not. It's different that there are mistakes on this website (which almost always get corrected quickly) than those that would actually show up IN the newspaper. If there are mistakes in the newspaper, that's one thing.... but to complain about typos and grammar on a website where none of "us" (the non-KNS you refer to) pay a single dime to use.... that just doesn't sit well with me. So get over it and, like I said originally, READ IT AND MOVE ON!!!!!

GO VOLS!!!

Posted by BloneyBoy on February 5, 2008 at 8:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)

UconnFan wrote:
I WANNA GO ON RECORD RIGHT NOW AND SAY MAYA IS QUICKLY BECOMING THE GREATEST PLAYER EVER..And i know parker is a great player but i still think she gets very lazy at times...

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

That's UconnFan backing up. You go on record to say nothing? Is she the greatest player ever? If that's what you're saying, OK. If not, you've said nothing. Also liked the "at times" you now insert in the "lazy player" accusation of Parker. LOL! What a SISSY! Go somewhere and suck your thumb and leave the flaming to the competent.

Posted by BloneyBoy on February 5, 2008 at 11:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)

OK UconnFan
Here's how it works. Reply to the statements made in the post of intrest. Example. No one used the term nasty. Geno is a GREASER like I am a HILLBILLY. He probably is a nice person but he is also an ego driven, showmanship, underhanded, in your face, women's BB coach. You are probably a nice person. But on this site you are an immature, self-serving FLAMER WANT-TO-BE, and you just don't have the stuff. I have made certain charges relating to your posts and you haven't answered a single one. I'm not calling you nasty or being nasty in pointing out your short coming. Just honest. Your two dunkers have never done it in a game. Video doesn't count for squat. That's kinda like your lame posts. LOL

Posted by BloneyBoy on February 5, 2008 at 3:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)

OK UconnFan, we'll let it go. You are too thin of skin to continue this level of smack/flaming. If you are going to come to a Tennessee comment site and ridicule and denounce the Lady Vols, then know this; there are those of us that are very capable of defending our own. Don't claim that you have only innocently been replying to other comments. You have an agenda.
The only thing in the above post worth commenting on is your assertion that Uconn has the better program due to the 4 of 5 NC's at UT's expense. Uconn had good teams those years. Better than the LV's as proved on the court. However, a program is more than 4,5 or even 10 years. Where were you before those and where were you since. I believe the LV's are are defending NCs. And again this year, it's ours to lose.

Posted by allvols7 on February 5, 2008 at 7:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Tennessee or UConn -- who's really the best?
By Charlie Creme Special to ESPN.com

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/columns...

Posted by Hacksaw57 on February 5, 2008 at 9:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Rutgers just beat UConn - Lady Vols SHOULD move to #1

Posted by BigOrangeVol on February 5, 2008 at 10:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hopefully this will send the UGone fan back underneath his rock! I hope the Lady Scarlet Knights will take care of business at Storrs too. Epiphanny Prince punched them right in their eye with 33 points and 6 boards! There went the UCan't 34-game regular season winning streak.

Big Monday should be quite a show.

Posted by BloneyBoy on February 6, 2008 at 12:21 a.m. (Suggest removal)

May not see UconnFan for a while. I'm sure he/she is licking his/her wounds. OUCH! That had to hurt. (Why am I grinning so big?)

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 6, 2008 at 10:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)

BloneyBoy....lol! I just logged on to see if my fellow(I use that term loosely) Uconn fan had anything to say today.Lemme guess why you're grinning so big...I'd be willing to bet the reason is twofold! Yeah, "OUCH", that did hurt, but hey, Rutgers played good game,hit 20 of 22 free throws,rattled our guards when it mattered, and E.Prince was a monster! Great game to watch even though I had to pay extra fee to CSTV for 1 day.Good luck against Rutgers Mon.

Posted by BloneyBoy on February 6, 2008 at 11:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey poly,
Rutgers is a very good team. They kind of folded in the NCCG last year but if they get that far this year, I expect them to do better. Any of us can be beaten on any given night as now we have all proven. Good luck to your geno-girls. They have shown the bb world that once again, they are one of about eight teams to be reckoned with. Stay tuned for a really good tourney this year.

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 6, 2008 at 12:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Bloneyboy....yes Rutgers is very good. Their D is outstanding.But the fact they dropped 49 points on Uconn in 2nd half is still boggling my mind.I for one don't hope they get that far again...at least at Uconn's expense anyway!I think what's been lost in all the b.s. over the demise of the Tenn/Uconn series is the fact there are other very good teams to be reckoned with come March.I'll not only stay tuned for a great tourney, I'll also stay tuned for your next round with UF!!LOL!That's been almost as entertaining as this season!

Posted by UTByrd on February 6, 2008 at 6:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I live just north of Jackson, Tn where Union University received a tremendous amount of damage in last night's tornadoes. Their women's team is undefeated and ranked #1 in NAIA as well as their men's team ranked in the top 25. Their campus has been shut down at least 2 weeks and I have't heard how it will affect their games. As of this post, there have been no fatalities at Union, thank Goodness. Please keep the Union University family in your prayers as they fight through this adversity.

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 6, 2008 at 7:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)

agree...leaving McKlaren in was bad move(where was Houston?).Also agree, the RAC sucks.Maybe a step above our old field house, if you can remember when games were played there, but Gampel opened in '91, so you probably wouldn't....remember though, a lot of Uconn fans drive to NJ for that game, cuz there's always tix available!!

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 6, 2008 at 7:16 p.m. (Suggest removal)

UTByrd....I most certainly will keep you all in my prayers.Good luck to you all in dealing with the aftermath.My neigborhood got hit by 1 in July '89.Not an experience I'd wish on worst enemy.God bless...

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 6, 2008 at 10:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey UF....yeah it certainly was frustrating watching Kali perform like that....now maybe it's just my imagination, but I swear, she actually seems to GAIN weight each time she runs down the court.Don't get me wrong, I really do like her, and totally admire her for dropping 60lbs in off season, I just wonder if it's catching up to her.Agree, Greene would have clamped EP,but hey, it is what it is , right? As a fellow Yank fan too, the Mets can have JS...THEY'RE STILL GONNA CHOKE!lol!!

Posted by mad_poly_uct on February 7, 2008 at 11:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)

....and it's a bit late I'm afraid to be trying to play mind games with Charde. She's a senior...just leave her out there and let the chips fall where they may...

Posted by orngejuiced on February 7, 2008 at 12:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Since when did this become a UCONN blog site...we don't care about who should be taken out of a UCONN game and who should be playing...This article is about the LADY VOLS not the lady huskies...

Posted by pendav on February 7, 2008 at 12:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey Uconn fans

STOP blaming the loss to Rutgers on injuries & Geno. Rutgers was the better team. Injuries are part of the game. Charde wasn't playing cuz she is no good. Mcklaren played cuz Uconn has no depth. Dixon is over her head as a freshman pt guard on the road against a good team. No way Uconn will win the big dance without a point guard, no depth & poor free throw shooting. WE have an outside chance of winning it all but probably will have to wait until next year. Anyone of 5 or 6 teams has a chance and no one team stands out.

Posted by pendav on February 7, 2008 at 12:35 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Hey orngejuiced

Go UCONN.

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