ROSEMONT, Ill. — Tennessee coach Pat Summitt had no qualms about beating her alma mater. No surprise there.
The Lady Vols are eyeing a big run in the NCAA Tournament, and this was no time to get sentimental.
Meighan Simmons scored 20 points and the second-seeded Lady Vols gave their coach a victory over the school where she played, beating 15th-seeded Tennessee-Martin 72-49 on Saturday in the first round.
“Pat Summitt’s a competitor. She plays her mother in checkers, she’s going to want to beat Miss Hazel,” said Tennessee associate head coach Holly Warlick said, referring to Summitt’s mom, Hazel Head. “Pat has a love for UT-Martin. She’s a competitor and wants to win. She was focused totally on us.”
Glory Johnson added 14 points and 12 rebounds as Tennessee (25-8) pulled away in the second half. The Lady Vols will meet DePaul, which beat Brigham Young, on Monday and try to take the next step toward their first Final Four since winning the NCAA championship in 2008.
The Lady Vols vowed to get back there and win a ninth NCAA title for Summitt, who shook the sport with her announcement last August that she has early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type. Last week, the iconic coach with the most wins in NCAA history said she wasn’t sure she would coach beyond the season.
On the court, it hasn’t been easy for the Lady Vols.
There were lopsided losses at Stanford and Notre Dame. The Lady Vols blew a halftime lead while dropping a close game at home to Baylor, the top seed in the regional. But they seem to be hitting their stride just in time, breezing to their third straight SEC title and following up with a win Saturday — their 14th in 16 games against Tennessee-Martin (23-9).
Tennessee dominated on the boards 52-39 and shut down the nation’s top scoring team, holding the Skyhawks to just under 29 percent shooting.
The Lady Vols didn’t exactly light it up from the floor at 40 percent, but they started to convert once they got away from those quick 3-pointers in the early going and worked the ball inside.
“After a while, we started using (our size),” Johnson said. “They started double-teaming, and we were kicking it out, made some shots we weren’t hitting early. We eventually started hitting shots like the Tennessee team we know we are.”
