KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – The Tennessee Lady Vols won yet another
NCAA Tournament game on their home floor.
|  | | Tennessee's Ashley Robinson goes over the back of Kelly Chavez, bottom, for the ball. |
Ashley Robinson scored 17 points as top-seeded Tennessee beat
Austin Peay 80-38 Friday night in the first round of the Mideast
Regional for the Lady Vols' 37th consecutive tournament victory on
their own court.
"It's good to get that first game behind us," Tennessee coach
Pat Summitt said.
The Lady Vols gave Summitt her 12th 30-win season, improving to
30-2. They will play ninth-seeded St. Mary's of California, which
beat Texas 68-64, in the second round Sunday night.
Tennessee has won eight straight first-round games by at least
37 points each, but it struggled a bit early against 16th-seeded
Austin Peay (17-14).
The Lady Vols missed a handful of easy layups and hit just seven
of their first 23 shots against the school where Summitt used to
play pickup games and cheer on her brother.
"We were a little overanxious at times and missed a lot of easy
shots early, yet we were very persistent going inside," Summitt
said.
The Lady Vols, much taller across the board (even point guard
Kara Lawson stood six inches taller than Austin Peay's 5-foot-3
Kelly Chavez), outscored the Lady Governors 44-18 inside and
outrebounded them 59-34.
Brooke Armistead, the nation's seventh-leading scorer averaging
22.2 points, kept Austin Peay close by scoring 16 of her 20 points
in the first half.
"I expected them to be good," Armistead said. "I knew they
were good athletes and bigger and faster and taller than us. They
all play well. There's not a weak player on that team. That's the
difference. I didn't expect for every one of them to be as good."
Paige Smith's 3-pointer at 7:28 pulled the Lady Governors to
19-14, but that was as close as they would get.
Tennessee used an 11-3 spurt, capped by Kristen Clement's
spinaround layup with 3:33 to go, to open up a 30-17 lead.
The Lady Vols led 38-21 at halftime and padded that margin by
starting the second half with a 21-4 run highlighted by
back-to-back 3s by Lawson, who has hit more 3s in two seasons than
any other player in Tennessee history.
The Lady Vols couldn't shake their shooting woes completely,
hitting just two of their first six shots. But they led by as many
as 44 points twice against an in-state team they have never lost to
in five games.
Lawson and Gwen Jackson each had 14 points for Tennessee.
The Lady Governors, making only their second appearance in the
NCAA Tournament, had their worst game of the season. They hit just
six shots from the floor in the second half and shot 22.8 percent
(13-of-57) for the game.
Austin Peay's Susie Gardner, in her first NCAA Tournament as a
head coach, didn't have much to smile about.
"We scored the first basket. Whew, (that's) what I was worried
about," she said.
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ALSO SEE
Women's College Basketball Scoreboard
Austin Peay Clubhouse
Tennessee Clubhouse
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