Adams: LSU is target for Lady Vols : govolsxtra.com

NASHVILLE - LSU's post-game press conference was only a couple of questions old when All-American center Sylvia Fowles was asked about her team's regular-season match-up with Tennessee. LSU coach Van Chancellor quickly intervened.

"I don't usually take over like this," Chancellor said. "But we will not answer any questions in regard to playing Tennessee."

You can't blame Chancellor. He was just doing what coaches do best: taking one game at a time. And since Tennessee had yet to play Vanderbilt in Saturday night's second semifinal game at the Sommet Center, he didn't want to assume the outcome.

But the assumption was too obvious for the media to avoid. The SEC is down overall, and UT and LSU are up as usual.

That was evident during the regular season in which LSU went unbeaten in conference play, and UT lost only to LSU. The SEC tournament has merely provided confirmation of their conference dominance.

LSU rolled into tonight's championship game with a 66-49 victory over Kentucky. That qualified as a close call when compared to its other tournament victory, an 80-36 rout of Ole Miss on Friday.

Kentucky succeeded in forcing a slower tempo and matched LSU's tight defense for the first 15 minutes before succumbing to the Lady Tigers' superior talent.

UT, which opened the tournament with a 92-61 victory against Florida, spotted Vanderbilt a 10-point lead in the opening minutes before All-American Candace Parker led an offensive charge that the Commodores couldn't match.

UT's 63-48 victory was right in line with a tournament that has gone according to form. The higher seed has won every game. The No. 1-seeded Lady Tigers hope that trend holds up for one more game.

If you're looking ahead to the next tournament, tonight's championship game means more to LSU. Even with a defeat, the third-ranked Lady Vols should get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. LSU, which has two more losses and can't match UT's strength of schedule, needs a victory for a No. 1 seed.

But there's more at stake than seeding and a conference tournament championship. The Lady Vols have something to prove after losing to LSU by 16 points during the regular season. They didn't just lose. They blew a 19-point lead on their home court.

"They beat us on our home floor," Parker said. "They won the SEC championship outright. So obviously, we have incentive going in.

"We're a completely different team now than when we played them."

UT coach Pat Summitt concurred. For most of the season, she has harped on her team's inability to finish off opponents. The LSU game gave the team a video to accompany Summitt's sermon.

In other games, the Lady Vols had surged to big leads, coasted awhile, and still managed to prevail. In the LSU game, they lost the lead; then lost the game - decisively.

"I think that's when they took ownership," Summitt said. "I told them, we had gotten away with being a team that played in spurts and played the scoreboard, instead of playing the game with great passion for 40 minutes. I said, if you're going to be a championship-caliber team, you've got to do it (for 40 minutes)."

Since the LSU loss, UT has won seven consecutive games against SEC opponents by an average of 20 points. But beating the rest of the SEC is nothing like beating LSU.

"They wanted a second chance (against LSU)," UT associate head coach Holly Warlick said. "Now, they've got it."

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