TALLAHASSEE - For 40 minutes Saturday afternoon the DePaul Blue Demons sprinted the floor of the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center, baseline to baseline. By the time the final horn sounded on the ninth-seed's 83-46 win over No. 8 seed George Washington, it looked like little more than another day of practice for the Blue Demons.
It was the type of warmup it might need as DePaul (23-6) runs into Tennessee, the Midwest Region's top seed, in Monday's second round. On Dec. 17 in Chicago, DePaul took Tennessee, then the No. 2-ranked team in the nation, to overtime before falling 96-89.
On Saturday the Blue Demons, small and speedy, used a breakneck pace to rout the veteran Colonials (22-8), forcing 24 turnovers and scoring 44 in the paint, most in transition. DePaul, ranked 12th nationally in mid February, ended the four-game slide that closed the regular season and put it in the underdog role as a lower seed.
"We really teach and preach strength up the middle - head, heart and guts," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. "And never has our strength up the middle been tested more than in the last five weeks. So for them to come out and resurrect their ability to play the way they did earlier in the season was huge.
"Until today, I think our peak moment of the season was Dec. 17. But we can thank our Conference USA comrades for pinning our ears back and forcing us to go back to the drawing board."
George Washington scored for the first time with 14:48 left in the opening half, but a late surge cut the DePaul lead from 10 with 3:42 left to 32-26 at halftime.
"I thought we went into the half with a little bit of momentum," Colonials coach Joe McKeown said. "We slowed the pace to something we were comfortable with, but in the second half we just couldn't get anything going."
Charlene Smith, who led all scorers with 24, and Khara Smith, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds, combined to score DePaul's first 16 points of the second half and helped put the Blue Demons in the second round for the first time since 1996.
TENNESSEE 77, COLGATE 54: Center Ashley Robinson controlled the interior on both ends of the floor.
Robinson had 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds to bounce back from an SEC tournament in which she had six points in two games. The 6-foot-5 senior added five blocks as Tennessee (27-3) blocked 12 and held 16th seed Colgate to 25.7 percent shooting.
"What Ashley did at both ends ... inspired a lot of other players to play the same way," Vols coach Pat Summitt said. "If she plays at that level, we are a team that can go to another level."
Colgate (21-10) led twice in the first three minutes before Tennessee used its transition game to surge to a 46-24 halftime lead.
Milaina Lagzdins had 13 points and seven rebounds for Colgate.
Former Clearwater High standout Dominique Redding played 11 minutes and scored six for Tennessee.
