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 PITTSBURGH (AP) - Longtime women's basketball power Tennessee may never have had a 39-point victory that required so much work, effort and emotion. Tennessee limited Drake to two points in the opening 10 minutes of each half and Alexis Hornbuckle led a late surge in the first half that broke open a tight game, carrying the Lady Vols to a 76-37 victory Sunday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The Vols (29-3), the top seed in the Dayton Regional, wasn't supposed to have any trouble with the 16th-seeded Bulldogs (14-19) but got exactly that for most of the first half — leading only 13-9 nearly 12 minutes into the game and 21-14 with 2:21 remaining before halftime.
Tennessee then went on a remarkable 34-0 run that lasted nearly 13 minutes and didn't end until midway through the second half, time enough for the Vols to push their lead to 55-14 before Drake's Monique Jones made two free throws with 10:36 remaining.
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