Nashville blues

• By WILLIAM WEATHERS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 10, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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If the Lady Tigers are to continue their postseason rite of passage and reach the program’s fifth straight Final Four, they’re going to have to do it after another frustrating conclusion to the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Instead of being able to become the school’s first team to win both the SEC’s regular-season and postseason tournament championships in the same season, top-seeded LSU faltered down the stretch in its pursuit of such distinction — falling in the league’s championship game for the fourth straight year with a 61-55 loss Sunday to second-seeded Tennessee before a crowd 12,892 at the Sommet Center.

“That’s the beauty of our team,” LSU All-American center Sylvia Fowles said. “You live, you learn from your mistakes. Eventually we’re going to make it back to the Final Four and it’s going to be another game like this where it’s crunch time and you’ve got be smart and you’ve got to play.”

Seventh-ranked LSU (27-5) will have to launch its latest Final Four berth via the at-large route after third-ranked Tennessee (30-2) captured its 13th SEC tournament title, including third over the Lady Tigers in four years, to secure the league’s automatic bid.

LSU will host first and second-round games at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on March 22-24.

“If Tennessee’s good enough to win a national championship, we are too,” LSU first-year coach Van Chancellor said. “We beat them at home (78-62), we had a great game here today. I don’t see much difference in the two teams. That’s what I see. Hard-fought game. Whatever they are, that’s what I think we are. Wherever you put them, we’re right there.”

LSU was attempting to defeat Tennessee for the second time in nearly a month after a record-setting 16-point comeback victory in Knoxville.

This time, the Lady Tigers couldn’t stand prosperity after all-tournament selection Quianna Chaney provided her team with a 54-51 lead with 3:35 to play on a baseline floater.

LSU, which shot 40.7 percent, didn’t make another field goal the remainder of the way and scored only one point on Sylvia Fowles’ free throw with 1:37 left. Tennessee closed the game on a 10-1 surge with tournament MVP Candace Parker, who led all scorers with 28 points, gave the Lady Volunteers the lead for good at 56-54 on a 15-foot jumper just before the shot clock expired.

“That’s the difference in the game,” Chancellor said. “Shot clock is down, the ball is outside with six, they’re in disarray. They just throw it to her and she makes a play. I thought that was the difference in the basketball game.”

LSU turned the ball over with 47 seconds to go when Fowles couldn’t grasp RaShonta LeBlanc’s pass in the post. She later missed a 7-footer over Parker with 33 seconds showing and Chaney rushed a 3-point attempt with 18 seconds to play that was woefully short of the mark.

Freshman Vicki Baugh made a pair of free throws and Alberta Auguste added another to help Tennessee win for the eighth straight time since losing at home to LSU.

“This tournament was about pride and respect,” said Parker, who scored 79 points in the tournament. “It was about taking a share of the SEC. If (LSU) had come in here and swept, it would’ve been an embarrassment to me.”

Fowles finished with her third double-double of the tournament — leading LSU with 19 points and 10 rebounds. After a slow start, where she missed five of her first six shots, the SEC’s player of the year was 9-of-17 overall but struggled at the free throw with a 1-of-4 effort.

“I think I just missed a couple of chippies, didn’t get a couple of calls that I thought were fouls,” said Fowles, who earned all-tournament honors with 49 points and 33 rebounds in three games. “You can’t live in the past. You just have to come out and work hard, and I think I did that in the second half.”

LSU, which trailed 25-22 at halftime, went on an 11-0 run midway through the second half — taking a 37-33 lead —with LeBlanc finishing it off with a fastbreak lay-up after a feed from White at the 12:45 mark.

The game then turned into a back-and-forth match of wills — beginning with 11:26 left — when the lead changed hands 12 times on 12 consecutive made field goals.

Fowles scored eight of team-high points during that stretch while Parker nine points, including a drive that provided Tennessee with a 48-47 lead with 7:50 remaining.

Chaney bombed away for her third 3-pointer, Fowles scored inside followed by Chaney’s baseline move for a three-point edge.

“We’re proud of ourselves, we came out and fought for it,” Fowles said. “You’ve just got to learn from these mistakes the last couple of minutes, the mistakes that we made within the game and go back and correct them and get past this point and move forward. I’m looking forward to the NCAA tournament.”