Lady Vols top Ohio State; 22 for Prahalis

DAYTON, Ohio -- There are halftime chats and then there are coach's rants. Pat Summitt hasn't won 1,071 games by not knowing when to let her team have it.

Summitt absolutely lit up her Tennessee Lady Vols at the break Saturday afternoon, and their Dayton Regional semifinal tilted soon after. With Shekinna Stricklen scoring 14 of her 20 points in the second half, top-seeded Tennessee moved into its accustomed spot in the Elite Eight with an 85-75 win over fourth-seeded Ohio State.

"It was about an 81/2," Summitt said, rating her halftime speech on a scale in which 10 is when the paint peels off the walls. "I wasn't real happy. But that's what you have to do at times. You go into the locker room and get a feel. One thing about this team, they do respond. Sometimes I think they kind of like to hear the coaches going off."

Meighan Simmons had 18 points and Kelley Cain 16 for the Lady Vols (34-2), who won their 25th straight They will meet Notre Dame, a 78-53 winner over Oklahoma, in the regional final Monday night.

Samantha Prahalis (Commack) had 22 points and seven assists for Ohio State (24-10), shooting 9-for-18 from the field.

Ohio State shot 67 percent from the field in the opening half and led by six before settling for a 42-40 lead at the break. Summitt said mental adjustments were needed at halftime more than anything she could draw up on a dry-erase board.

"Coach kind of lit a fire under our butts in the second half," Cain said. "We played better. We were getting up in their grilles, making them play at a different level than they were used to."

With Tennessee leading 58-57, Stricklen sank a long three-pointer, then bulled her way along the baseline to power in a layup for a 63-57 lead. After Brittany Johnson hit one of her four three-pointers for Ohio State, the Lady Vols ran off six straight points for a 69-60 lead.

"For about 33 minutes, we played sound, smart basketball," said Buckeyes coach Jim Foster, making his 25th NCAA appearance in 33 years as a head coach. "For about seven minutes, we didn't. And that seven minutes really cost us."

Jantel Lavender had 19 points, Johnson 16 and Tayler Hill 12 for Ohio State, which reached the Sweet 16 for the second time in three seasons. The Buckeyes were eliminated in the second round last season.

Prahalis averaged 19.0 points and 8.3 assists in three NCAA Tournament games this year, shooting 22-for-39 from the field, and finished her junior season with averages of 14.5 points and 6.9 assists per game.

In the first two rounds of the tournament, Prahalis had 19 points and 10 assists in Ohio State's 80-69 win over Central Florida and 16 points and eight assists in the Buckeyes' 67-60 victory over Georgia Tech.

Prahalis, who scored 13 points in the first half, was involved in one of the plays that illustrated Tennessee's renewed energy on defense after halftime.

The point guard dribbled toward the basket on a two-on-none fast break and appeared to have an easy layup. But Simmons turned on the afterburners, streaked past several players and surprised Prahalis, blocking her shot out of bounds from behind.

"That's why we call her Speedy," Cain said.

"I was in front of Meighan for a while," teammate Angie Bjorklund said, laughing. "But she came out of nowhere."

"My teammates were saying, 'You've got to get your behind back,' '' Simmons said. "I got a burst of speed right after that. You know, I'm not going to let my teammates get mad at me."