For three-fourths of its showdown with No. 3 Tennessee, the 25th-ranked University of Wisconsin women's basketball team did the unthinkable -- the Badgers made the Lady Vols look ordinary.

Wisconsin led, 44-41, onLaTonya Sims' three-point play three minutes, 33 seconds into the second half, and UW trailed just 51-49 following Kyle Black's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 12:06 to play.

But from that point on, the Lady Vols looked every bit the queens of college women's basketball. Tennessee used a 17-1 spurt to take control of the game en route to an 85-62 victory Sunday before 11,861 stunned fans at the Kohl Center.

While losing to Tennessee -- which has won six NCAA titles since 1987 -- is hardly a sin, UW coach Jane Albright was clearly upset with her team's late-game collapse.

"I think we're very upset,'' said Albright, who was a graduate assistant at Tennessee for two seasons (1981-83) "I don't think this is OK. I think we're better than we played in the second half and, quite frankly, I was embarrassed that we didn't give them a better game.''

Wisconsin scored just 13 points in the game's final 12 minutes as Tennessee coach Pat Summitt became the second women's coach to win at least 700 games.

"Today, the most important thing that happened is our basketball team went on the road, in front of a hostile crowd, against a quality opponent and really played well as a team,'' said Summitt, downplaying her milestone victory.

The Badgers (4-2) were led by freshman center Nina Smith's 16 points and 6 rebounds. Sims added 14 points and 8 rebounds, and Jessie Stomski had 12 points and 7 rebounds.

Tennessee (5-1) got 19 points, 7 steals and 6 rebounds from junior guard Semeka Randall, and 17 points and 9 rebounds from freshman forward Gwen Jackson.

The Lady Vols (5-1) shot just 39.2 percent from the floor, but won their fifth straight by playing an intense, athletic brand of basketball which eventually overwhelmed the Badgers.

"I really felt like we could win the game, and that's a step that we're working on,'' Albright said of beating first-rate competition. "We did some really nice things, but we also made some very glaring errors, and it's very easy to look at the stats and tell what those were.''

Among those errors were 28 UW turnovers, many of which came against UT's full-court pressure. The Lady Vols, meanwhile, committed just 13 turnovers. In addition, Tennessee dominated the Badgers on the boards, holding a 48-34 rebounding edge.

Those two statistics alone are a major reason why UT had 25 more field goal attempts -- and 10 more free throw attempts -- than the Badgers.

"We need to rebound better. We definitely need to take care of the ball,'' said UW senior guard Kelley Paulus, who scored 10 first-half points to keep UW close. " ... Those things we needed to work on anyway, and I think Tennessee was a game that just really shown the light on all of those aspects.''

Tennessee led by as many as nine points in the first half, and was up seven early in the second, but couldn't shake the scrappy Badgers, who started to feed off the energy provided by the crowd.

Trailing, 41-34, a minute into the second half, Smith made a 3-pointer from the right wing, scored down low off an assist from Stomski and hit a putback to tie the game, 41-41, with 17 minutes to play.

"I basically came into this game thinking like I do every game, that I want to win,'' said Smith, who chose the UW over Tennessee last fall. "And I came in with that mentality, to do whatever it took to win the game.''

Sims then scored on a putback, was fouled and added the free throw for a 44-41 UW advantage as the crowd came to life.

But that's when the Lady Vols' full-court pressure -- which they'd been using for most of the game -- suddenly started to rattle the Badgers. That pressure caused three key turnovers as UT used a 10-2 run to take a 51-46 lead.

"I think we went up by three points and then, pretty much, we didn't get the ball past half-court for it seemed like an hour and a half to me,'' said Albright.

The Badgers' last push to stay close came when Black made her 3-pointer with 12:06 to play to pull UW within 51-49.

But over the next five minutes, Tennessee used a 17-1 spurt to knock out the Badgers. Wisconsin, which lost its composure vs. the pressure, had four turnovers and went 0 for 6 from the floor during the deciding run.

"Everything we tried to do, Tennessee took it away,'' Sims said. "With turnovers and rebounds and stuff. And like Jane said, we had trouble with the press, so I guess there was really no way to get started offensively.''

Overall, UW had 16 second-half turnovers. UW point guards Dee Dee Pate and Candas Smith combined for 3 points, 5 assists and 11 turnovers.

Albright, for one, had no explanation for the late collapse vs. the Tennessee defense.

"I think it was more that we just broke down,'' she said. "It certainly is their press that made us break down, but we practiced against six guys this week and didn't have any trouble getting the ball up, and they're pretty quick, athletic guys. We just made very poor decisions as a unit.''

Wisconsin also hurt itself with foul trouble from its starters. Guard Tamara Moore picked up her fourth foul with 13:50 to play, Stomski had her fourth with 9:23 to play and Pate got her fourth with 9:01 left.

Nina Smith played just 11 minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls.