No. 6 Volunteers top Cardinal in OT

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee coach Pat Summitt had plenty of strong messages for her players in practice this week following an embarrassing loss at Baylor. After the Lady Vols had squandered away their lead against Stanford, she called a timeout to give them one more.

“She just said, ‘We’re not going to lose this game,’ ” Meighan Simmons recalled. “I just think that everybody thought about what they needed to do to help the team win, and we just brought all of that together.”

Simmons did her part with 23 points and by hitting a 3-pointer to force overtime, and No. 6 Tennessee used free throws to pull away in the extra session and beat No. 3 Stanford 82-72 on Sunday night.

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer was denied her 800th career win again after the Cardinal, now 6-2, lost at No. 22 DePaul on Thursday. Her next chance comes Wednesday against San Francisco.

Angie Bjorklund (University High) scored 16 points for Tennessee (10-2).