Tennessee’s Isabelle Harrison, left, and Cierra Burdick, right, celebrate a score against St. John’s in the first half of an NCAA women’s college basketball second-round tournament game Monday, March 24, 2014, in Knoxville.KNOXVILLE – Cierra Burdick had 21 points and 11 rebounds as Tennessee relied on its smothering defense to pull away from St. John’s for a 67-51 victory in the second round of the NCAA tournament Monday night.
Tennessee, the top seed in the Louisville Regional, advanced to a regional semifinal Sunday against the winner of Tuesday’s game between No. 4 seed Maryland and No. 5 seed Texas.
Although St. John’s (23-11) never led, the eighth-seeded Red Storm tied the game 39-39 with 16:59 remaining. St. John’s would score just two more points over the next nine minutes as its hopes for an upset disintegrated. The Red Storm shot 5 of 24 overall and 5 of 11 from the free-throw line and committed 13 turnovers in the second half.
Meighan Simmons scored 17 points as Tennessee (29-5) won for the 15th time in its last 16 games. Isabelle Harrison had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Aliyyah Handford scored 23 for St. John’s.