March 18, 2002
By TERESA M. WALKER
AP Sports Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Zuzi Klimesova scored 15 points and Chantelle Anderson added 14 as top-seeded Vanderbilt beat Arizona State 61-35 Monday night in the second round of the Midwest Regional, the Commodores' seventh straight victory and 500th in school history.
The Commodores (29-6) improved to 14-0 in NCAA tournament games at Memorial Gym and 19-5 through the first two rounds.
They earned their second straight trip to the regional semifinals and 10th in 15 tournament appearances. Vanderbilt will play fourth-seeded North Carolina, a 72-69 winner over Minnesota, in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday.
Ninth-seeded Arizona State (25-9) had a chance at the best season in school history with a victory that would have put the Sun Devils into the regional semifinals for the first time since 1983.
With the Pac-10 Conference's stingiest scoring defense, they felt they could slow down the team tied with Connecticut for the nation's best shooting team, men's or women's. The Sun Devils weren't worried about falling behind, not after having to rally for victory in each of their previous four games.
The Commodores never gave them a chance.
Vanderbilt dominated the Sun Devils, hitting 51 percent (24-of-47) from the floor compared to 15-of-52 (28 percent). The Commodores also controlled the boards with a 36-24 edge on rebounds.
Anderson scored the first basket of the game, and Vanderbilt never looked back as it scored 12 of the first 14 points. Each of the Commodores' starters had scored a little more than seven minutes into the game, and they hit 52 percent of their shots in leading 32-15 at halftime.
Jillian Danker added 13 for Vanderbilt, and Ashley McElhiney had 12.
Arizona State missed four of its first five shots and hit only a season-low 6-of-24 for the first half. The Sun Devils went the final 4:10 of the half without scoring.
By the time Betsy Boardman ended the scoreless streak with a bucket at 16:28, Arizona State trailed 36-17. That was as close as the Sun Devils would get as Vandy pushed the lead to as much as 52-27 on a bucket by Danker with 5:11 to go.
Amanda Levens, the Sun Devils' leading scorer, had led their recent comebacks - but not Monday night. She had only two points in the first half and finished with just six. Melody Johnson had a team-high 13 points, and Cion Carvalho, who had a career-high 24 points in beating Wisconsin, had two.