Plan is to curb Dayton's enthusiasm

Just hours after Tennessee finished its women's basketball work Saturday, Dayton took over the Lady Vols' court.

The Flyers literally descended upon the Thompson-Boling Arena floor in a joyous human pile after a final-second basket completed an 18-point second-half comeback and a 67-66 first-round NCAA tournament victory over TCU.

The heroics by the eighth-seeded Flyers (25-7) set up a second-round game against Memphis Regional top seed Tennessee (31-2) on Monday (TV: ESPN2, 7 p.m.) at the arena. The winner advances to the regional semifinals on Saturday.

After their 75-42 opening-round victory over Austin Peay, several of the Lady Vols stayed until halftime of the second game. UT forward Alyssia Brewer ended up watching Dayton's rally on television. Teammate Glory Johnson was getting updates while attending the Tennessee softball game.

By Sunday afternoon, all of the Lady Vols were familiar with the highlights, along with the challenge of extending the program's 47-game NCAA home winning streak and flooring a game opponent that's making its NCAA tournament debut.

"This is their whole dreams; their everything,'' UT freshman Taber Spani said. "This is huge for them. They're going to give us everything that they have. So we have to be ready for it."

The Lady Vols can relate to Dayton's rally, since most took part in a 20-point second-half comeback at Rutgers last season. UT guard Angie Bjorklund said that such an undertaking reinforces a postseason essential.

"When you're trying to come back from that far down, you have to take it one play at time,'' she said. "You have to get a stop, you have to score. Get a stop, you have to score."

Without the benefit of their own dramatics, the Lady Vols were drawing on a season's worth of experience in their preparations.

With the Flyers hitting nine 3-pointers against TCU, Tennessee will be relying on the recent improvements in its 3-point defense. During the SEC tournament, the opposition shot a collective 15.7 percent (8 for 51) in three games. Austin Peay was 3 for 14. (21.4 percent).

Bjorklund said a switching defensive alignment has enabled the Lady Vols to shadow shooters better. Plus, they've upgraded their communication.

"When screens are being set, we really bumped up our communication and helping each other and helping the helper,'' Bjorklund said. "... And then having a sense of urgency. Coach (Pat Summitt) made it clear: If you let a 3-point shooter shoot and she makes it, you're coming out. They shot no uncontested shots."

The Lady Vols likely will have to make some perimeter shots as well. Dayton stymied TCU with a zone during its comeback. Tennessee is hitting at a 31.7 percent clip (19 for 60) from long range in its last four games, which is below its season accuracy of 37.4 percent.

"We have all the pieces to break down a zone,'' Spani said. "We've got the inside presence where they're going to have to pack it in and then we have shooters throughout the perimeter.

"We've played against a lot of zone and we've really worked in practice against zones. I think we're confident with it."

Finally, rebounding figures to be more of a contest. Dayton has had the advantage in 25 of its 32 games this season. An offensive rebound by Patrice Lalor preceded Brittany Wilson's game-winning basket with 1.1 second left Saturday.

While the Lady Vols' 47-28 advantage against overmatched Austin Peay was serviceable, it wasn't up their plus-60 SEC tournament rebounding standards.

"I don't know what our deal was,'' Bjorklund said. "Maybe because they were smaller than us, we didn't think we necessarily had to block out. It's not who we play. We have to dominate the boards."

The same could be said about their home court.