All-American Candace Parker overcomes injury, Vols reach Final Four

OKLAHOMA CITY — With Tennessee's best player struggling to keep her arm in its socket, the fate of a women's basketball powerhouse depended on someone digging through laundry in the team bus.

All-American Candace Parker's shoulder needed to be stabilized, and someone needed to find a sleeve to do the trick. Needless to say, college basketball's winningest coach was a little bit antsy.

"I'm about to have a fit as to why we don't have it right there," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said.

Once the sleeve was located and Parker put it on, Tennessee was back on track for the Final Four.

Parker dislocated her left shoulder, but scored 26 points to lead the Vols out of a second-half deficit for a 53-45 win over Texas A&M in the Oklahoma City Regional final Tuesday night.

She twice left the game in the first half with the injury and she didn't return until about halfway through the second half. She scored six of the Vols' points in an 8-0 run as they overcame a 42-37 deficit.

"I was just going to play as hard as I could and not to think about my shoulder and my situation," Parker said. "I didn't want this to be the last time that we played together."

She scored eight points in the second half, but it was enough to push the Vols (34-2) ahead when combined with a sturdy defensive effort that kept Texas A&M (29-8) scoreless for a five-minute stretch.

The sleeve wasn't an immediate fix. Parker's first shot was an airball on a jumper from the foul line, and she couldn't convert a layup off a lob at the right block.

She turned a second alley-oop attempt into a successful layup, and that got the Vols' run going. Shannon Bobbitt followed with two free throws, and Parker made two to put Tennessee ahead 43-42 with 3:44 to play. She went 1 for 2 on two successive trips to the foul line to stretch the lead to three.

After a free throw by the Aggies' Takia Starks, Parker lost the ball in the lane but was able to recover and pass to Alexis Hornbuckle for a deep three-pointer that gave the Vols a 48-43 edge with 48.8 seconds left. The Vols added five free throws.

"People, sometimes they see Candace as more of a finesse player but I think sometimes when you see finesse players, you don't realize just how mentally tough they are until you see them fight through the adversity that she fought through tonight," Summitt said.