With LSU and Tennessee involved in a second-half battle for the Southeastern Conference Championship, Tennessee junior Candace Parker felt she had something to prove. Parker, the reigning Naismith Player of the Year, was not named the SEC Player of the Year on Tuesday, losing out to LSU senior center Sylvia Fowles. With revenge in mind, Parker scored 15 of her game-high 28 points in the second half to lead the Lady Vols to a 61-55 win over the Lady Tigers, clinching the 13th SEC tournament championship for Tennessee. “[Awards] give us a little bit of motivation and a little bit of incentive to play harder,” Parker said. “We came in with a chip on our shoulders.” LSU beat Tennessee, 78-62, three weeks ago on the Lady Vols’ home floor. Parker needed just one word to describe the difference between Sunday’s game and the team’s initial meeting. “Postseason,” Parker said on ESPN2 after the game. “We step it up during the postseason. If we can play all of the regular season like we play the postseason, we’d be undefeated.” The Lady Vols led 58-55 with 31 seconds on the clock. Parker missed a free throw, giving LSU an opportunity to tie the game, but senior guard Quianna Chaney’s desperation 3-pointer with 17 seconds to play was wide of the rim. Freshman forward Vicki Baugh was fouled and sunk a pair of free-throws to seal the win for the Lady Vols. Tennessee is projected to be a No. 1 seed later this month in the NCAA Tournament, but senior guard Alexis Hornbuckle said the Lady Vols’ season will not be complete without a second-straight national championship. “I’m really proud of our team and how we played tonight,” Hornbuckle said. “We have bigger fish to fry. We want to win an NCAA Championship so we’ve got to go back to the gym and get to work.” With two minutes to play, Parker broke a tie at 54 on a jump shot with the shot clock expiring. LSU senior center Sylvia Fowles was fouled with 1:37 to play in the game, but made just one of two free throws to cut the lead to one point. After a Tennessee missed 3-pointer, the Lady Tigers had an opportunity to take the lead, but Fowles lost a pass out of bounds to give the ball back to Tennessee. LSU had several opportunities to take control of the game throughout the second half, but the Lady Tigers shot just 57 percent from the free-throw line and committed 15 turnovers. “We had two or three times we could have really taken advantage of the situation,” said LSU coach Van Chancellor. “In a game like this you’re hunting separation, and our missed free throws, I don’t know about that.” Fowles said the Lady Tigers’ mental lapses down the stretch will be corrected before the NCAA Tournament. “You’ve just got to learn from these mistakes the last couple minutes,” Fowles said. “The mistakes that we made within the game and go back and correct them and get past this point and move forward.” The Lady Tigers halted Parker early in the second half, holding her scoreless the first eight minutes of the second half to take a 37-33 lead. Down the stretch, the two teams exchanged blows going back and forth in a game that had 16 lead-changes. Fowles rebounded from a slow start offensively to record her 82nd double-double, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds for LSU. Four Lady Tigers scored eight or more points for LSU, but the Lady Tigers could not get enough offense down the stretch to win, scoring just two points in the final three minutes of the game. Both teams jumped out of the gates hot offensively, with the Lady Vols taking a 18-12 lead with more than 12 minutes to play in the first half. Parker scored 10 of her 13 first-half points during that stretch, using an array of inside moves and outside jump shots. Fowles picked up her second foul of the game with eight minutes to play in the first half. Throughout the season, LSU coach Van Chancellor has sat Fowles down in the first half when she was in foul trouble. But Chancellor left Fowles on the floor Sunday because he said he needed his All-American center on the floor to halt the Lady Vols’ offense. “We can’t take her out,” Chancellor said. “If she fouls out, we’re in trouble anyhow.” The Lady Tigers went to a zone defense with Fowles in foul trouble for the remainder of the first half and stunted Tennessee’s offense, holding the Lady Vols to just one field goal in the final nine minutes of the first half to cut Tennessee’s lead to 25-22 at halftime. Fowles and Chaney scored 12 combined first-half points for LSU in the first half, but as a team, LSU shot only 32 percent from the floor compared to 39 percent for the Lady Vols. The Lady Tigers advanced to the finals on Saturday with a 66-49 semifinals win against Kentucky. LSU will have a week off before finding out its NCAA Tournament seed next Monday.