No. 3 Tennessee crashed the party in Athens as they defeated the No. 22 Georgia Lady Bulldogs on senior night 72-63. Candace Parker led the charge with 30 points and nine rebounds while senior guard Shannon Bobbit added 15 points. Parker had 25 of the Lady Vols first 41 points.

 Christy Marshall and Tasha Humphrey had 15 and 13 points, respectively, to lead Georgia (21-8 overall, 8-6 SEC).

 The Lady Vols’ largest lead of the game was 13, but they could never completely pull away from the Bulldogs. Poor shooting performances from behind the arc and at the charity stripe by Tennessee (27-2, 13-1) kept the game close for most of the evening.

 Tennessee was 2-of-11 from 3-point land and shot just 40 percent from the free-throw line. Nicky Anosike cleaned up her teammates' misses, finishing with seven offensive rebounds and 11 total.

 UGA cut the lead down to 64-59 with about three and a half minutes left. Missed shots and constant fouling prevented them from ending senior night with a comeback win.

Tennessee returns to action Saturday as the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament. They will play the winner of Friday's game between South Carolina and Florida. Georgia will face Alabama Friday as the No. 5 seed.

 MY TAKE

 Georgia came out and showed they were not intimated by Tennessee. They kept the game close in the first half and lead at halftime 29-26. The better team usually takes over in the second half and that is what the Lady Vols did by jumping out to a double-digit lead.

 Tennessee was playing for the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Winning this game will definitely help them since Georgia is ranked at No. 20. Losses to Stanford and SEC leading LSU should not be criticized too heavily.

 It is clear this team will go where Candace Parker takes them. As long as Bobbit can continue to manage the game and Anosike crashes the boards, everything else should fall into place.

 Georgia is a good team that should make some noise this month. Their biggest problem was not finishing. That problem should be corrected before March Madness if the Bulldogs hope to realize their full potential.