Lady Vols, Maryland fill Spokane Regional

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee forward Bashaara Graves can’t explain her tendency to have her best performances in the Lady Vols’ biggest games. She just wants to make sure the trend continues for another couple of weeks. Graves scored 21 points and had 14 rebounds as Tennessee withstood a late rally to defeat Pittsburgh 77-67 in an NCAA women’s tournament second-round game Monday night. The 6-foot-2 junior’s double-double came two days after Graves had a career-high 24 points in a 72-61 first-round victory over Boise State. Graves also had 22 points at Notre Dame and 20 points at South Carolina this season, though Tennessee lost both games. “It just happens,” Graves said. “I don’t think it’s (that I have) a different mindset. Everyone else says they can tell when I’m quiet during warmups that I’ll have a good game, but I don’t think anything like that.” The second-seeded Lady Vols (29-5) improved to 56-0 in NCAA tournament home games and advanced to a Spokane Region semifinal Saturday against No. 11 seed Gonzaga (26-7). Tennessee is the only program to appear in all 34 NCAA tournaments and has reached the regional semifinals every year but 2009, when it lost to Ball State in the first round. Tennessee withstood a brilliant performance from Pittsburgh senior Brianna Kiesel, who scored 24 of her career-high 32 points in the second half for the 10th-seeded Panthers (20-12). “Just playing (Tennessee) today and having the honor of playing one of the best teams in the nation, it was just a great, amazing game,” Kiesel said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better way to go out.” After trailing by 14 with 41/2 minutes left, Pittsburgh (20-12) cut the deficit to 69-65 on Kiesel’s three-point play with 37.8 seconds remaining. Ariel Massengale went 6 of 6 on free throws and made a steal in the final 37 seconds to seal Tennessee’s victory. “What a gutsy performance by their point guard,” Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said. “She was incredible. She was a handful. That’s what you do when you get to this point. You battle and play hard.” Maryland 85, Princeton 70: Laurin Mincy scored 27 points, and the Terrapins used a second-half blitz to knock off the Tigers at College Park, Maryland. After leading by only 42-38 at the break, Maryland used a 17-2 run immediately after halftime to turn a surprisingly tight game into a rout. Maryland will play Duke on Saturday in a regional semifinal in Spokane.