Parker's off night can't stop Lady Vols

Tennessee can dominate even when Candace Parker doesn't play her best. With the national player of the year candidate in foul trouble and neutralized by Oral Roberts' zone defense, the defending national champions called on their other talented players.

Freshman Angie Bjorklund hit four 3-pointers, had 16 points and seven rebounds to lead the Lady Volunteers to their customary first-round rout, 94-55 over the 16th-seeded Golden Eagles on Sunday night.

Parker had 14 points, four rebounds, four steals and two blocks in just 18 minutes and went to the bench for good with her fourth foul with 14:04 left in the game.

"Candace, unfortunately, just couldn't seem to keep herself in the game for a long time," coach Pat Summitt said. "But it was good to get Alberta (Auguste) and Vicki (Baugh) some playing time and I thought we played much better in the second half."

Truth was, top-seeded Tennessee (31-2) didn't need Parker much Sunday, something that could change Tuesday night when they face ninth-seeded Purdue in the Boilermakers' home arena. Purdue reached the second round with a 66-59 win over eighth-seeded Utah.

But this game wasn't to Parker's usual style anyway. The Lady Vols hit seven 3-pointers in the first half and wound up making 12 3s, their second-highest total of the season.

For the Golden Eagles (19-14), things went even worse than expected. Jenny Hardin had 16 points to lead Oral Roberts in their most lopsided loss of the season.

Not only did they have to contend Tennessee's talent, but the long odds of upsetting Tennessee got dramatically worse just seconds into the game when their top scorer and only all-Summit League player, Mariana Camargo, slid awkwardly out of bounds while chasing the ball near the Volunteers' baseline.

Camargo stayed on the ground until officials stopped play 14 seconds into the game. A few minutes later, she was carried from the court to the locker room and didn't re-emerge until there was 11:58 left in the first half — her hobbling on crutches and with her left knee wrapped.

The injury also had an emotional effect on the Lady Vols.

"It was such a freak, unfortunate injury and I know, at first, our team was bothered by it because you never want to see anyone go down with an injury — particularly when you're talking about one of their top players," Summitt said.

Yet the Golden Eagles figured out a way to hang around for a while. They tied the score at 6, again at 9 and were still within 16-15 with 10:29 to go in the first half.

From there, it was all Tennessee. Alexis Hornbuckle and Bjorklund hit back-to-back 3s and Parker's steal and coast-to-coast layup with 8:30 left made it 26-15.

The Lady Vols were only warming up. By the end of the 16-2 run, the Vols led 34-17, and Oral Roberts couldn't even capitalize on its good shooting touch. The Golden Eagles still trailed 55-43 in the second half despite shooting 59.3 percent from the field.

And when they started misfiring, the Lady Vols pulled away, improving to 41-0 all-time in first- and second-round NCAA tournament games.

Hornbuckle and Alberta Auguste each had 13 points for Tennessee.

Rachel Watman finished with 15 points and Janae Voelker had nine points and 11 rebounds for Oral Roberts.