Mar 29, 2005 3 min read

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Rutgers has something few teams that have played Tennessee in the postseason have been able to brag about: a regular-season blowout win against the Lady Vols. Now comes the hard part for the Scarlet Knights – trying to repeat the feat when it matters most. The rematch comes tonight in the Philadelphia Regional for the right to advance to the Final Four in Indianapolis.

“We’re at least going into that game knowing we can win and we don’t have to guess about what we have to do,” Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer said Monday.

The Scarlet Knights not only won that Dec. 29 game 65-51, they embarrassed top-seeded Tennessee (29-4). The 51 points tied for the second-fewest scored by the Lady Vols in a game, and their 16 first-half points were two points shy of Tennessee’s record low.

Rutgers (28-6) hasn’t forgotten that euphoric feeling. It started a run of three straight wins against top 10 teams and propelled the third-seeded Scarlet Knights into the national spotlight. Stringer called the win a “defining moment.”

But this isn’t December and both lineups have been overhauled.

“We did beat Tennessee rather handily, but this is not the same Tennessee team,” Stringer said. “But we did win so we know we are capable.”

The Rutgers’ loss was the third in eight games for the Lady Vols, which probably seemed like a five-game losing streak for most teams. The Lady Vols were reeling from a heralded freshman class that was going down, one season-ending knee injury at a time.

Candace Parker and Alex Fuller never played and Sa’de Wiley-Gatewood had her season shortened because of tendinitis in the knee. Sophomore Sidney Spencer also saw her season end with a torn knee ligament.

The biggest blow was losing Parker, the first woman to win the dunk contest at the McDonald’s High School All-American game. Coach Pat Summitt wanted to run a triple-post offense around Parker, and held out hope she would return sometime in December.

Instead, Parker never made it back and the Vols – who had three losses before January for the first time since the 1996-97 season – were forced to realize they had to win with only eight or nine players.

“I think it really brought our team together,” said Summitt, who has 881 career wins. “I think that adversity hit at a time that they had to make a decision as a basketball team and with their leadership as to how they were going to handle it. It made them much more determined and focused.”

Summitt also realized she had to make some lineup changes. Most notably, Shyra Ely shifted from small forward to power forward and Tennessee’s offense started clicking.

“I feel really natural and comfortable there,” Ely said. “I’ve always played the post. I really don’t regret playing the three because it made me a better player all around.”