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Game Recap: Women’s Basketball | November 16, 2024 | Eric Trainer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper fired in a career-high 33 points, propelling Tennessee past Liberty, 109-93, Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 9,109 at Food City Center.

Cooper connected on 12 of 20 field goal attempts, sinking all seven free-throw tries and netting two of four three-point shots to pace the Lady Vols (4-0). She finished a rebound shy of her second straight double-double and added three assists and a pair of steals. Also in double figures for the Big Orange were Ruby Whitehorn, Sara Puckett and Jewel Spear, who tossed in 13, 12 and 10 points, respectively, as their team drained 14 three-pointers on 36.8-percent accuracy. 

The Lady Flames (2-2), who are picked to finish second in Conference USA, got 27 points from 6-foot-6 center Bella Smuda as well as 19 from Avery Mills, 11 from Emma Hess and 10 from Emily Howard.  LU finished the game at 51.5 percent from the field, including 50 percent (11 of 22) from beyond the three-point arc. 

The Lady Vols came out firing on all cylinders, racing to an 8-0 lead by the 7:43 mark. UT connected on 75-percent accuracy over the first five minutes of the game, with Cooper, Puckett, Spear and Tess Darby knocking down threes in a 4-for-5 shooting flurry from beyond the arc to build a 17-3 cushion by the 4:59 media timeout. UT pushed a scoring run to 11-0 with a Jillian Hollingshead layup and upped the gap to 16, 19-3, with 4:54 to go before Liberty began to find its range. Buckets by Cooper and Whitehorn in the final 11 seconds of the period, though, enabled the Big Orange to close out the opening frame with a 34-15 advantage.

Liberty whittled Tennessee’s advantage to 15 at 38-23 on a three-pointer by Hess with 8:45 to go in the second stanza before the Lady Vols stretched the lead back to 19 and forced the Lady Flames to take a timeout trailing 42-23 with 7:26 remaining.  UT expanded the margin further midway through the second period, getting buckets by Whitehorn, Avery Strickland and Alyssa Latham just before back-to-back three-balls by Spear and Hollingshead made it a 25-point game, 50-25, with five minutes to go. LU kept fighting back, getting a 10-0 run to cut the gap to 60-39 with 1:58 left. A pair of Cooper buckets before the half, though, sent Tennessee into the intermission with a 64-43 edge. 

The Lady Vols scored first to open the second half on a Zee Spearman three-pointer to make it 67-43, but Liberty followed a 63-percent second-quarter shooting effort by connecting on 60 percent (6-10) at the outset of the third period to trim the deficit to 12, 69-57, with 5:33 to go and force a UT timeout. The Big Orange responded out of the break, getting pairs of free throws from Kaniya Boyd and Cooper and a three from Cooper to build the lead back to 22, 79-57, with 4:05 remaining. The Lady Flames refused to go away, however, getting a bucket before the buzzer to head to the fourth trailing by 18, 89-71.

The teams exchanged baskets in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, with a Whitehorn three putting Tennessee back up by 19, 99-80, with 6:18 remaining. Liberty, however, had closed the gap to 15, 99-84, by the 4:43 media timeout. The Lady Flames, who outscored the hosts in the final two quarters by a 50-45 count, whittled the deficit to 12 again at 105-93 with 1:54 to go, but Cooper sank four free throws over the final 1:07 to close out the scoring and keep her squad unbeaten.

NEXT UP: The Lady Vols will have a 10-day break from action before resuming competition on Nov. 26, as they welcome Western Carolina to Food City Center. That contest is slated for 7 p.m. ET and will be televised on SEC Network.

PILING UP POINTS: UT has scored 20 or more points in 14 of 16 quarters thus far. The only periods the Big Orange failed to reach that total were when it tallied 19 in the second quarter vs. UT Martin on Nov. 7 and 18 in the second stanza vs. Middle Tennessee on Nov. 12. It scored 20 plus points in all four quarters against Liberty and Samford, while also adding three such quarters vs. UT Martin and Middle Tennessee. Tennessee’s best 2024-25 offensive quarter of 34 came Saturday in the opening stanza vs. Liberty, which tied for the seventh-most points scored in any quarter and tied for second-most in a first quarter in program history.

CAREER-HIGH COOP: Redshirt sophomore Talaysia Cooper produced a career-high 33 points against the Flames. Cooper also added nine rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals to her Saturday afternoon resume. The guard struck early, draining 11 points from sinking all five of her field goal attempts in the opening quarter of action. Cooper’s 33-point total is the most points scored in a single game by a Lady Vol during the 2024-25 season. Cooper topped Zee Spearman’s 25 points against Samford on Nov. 5, 2024. Cooper leads the team in points with 76, averaging 19.0 per game. She is shooting 92.3 percent from the charity stripe and is connecting on 57-percent of her field goal tries.

BIG ORANGE, BIG HALF: The Lady Vols posted their third-highest point total in a half in program history with 64 points. That effort stands as the most since Tennessee dropped 63 total points in the opening half vs. Central Arkansas on Nov. 15, 2015. UT topped its previous 2024-25 first-half best of 49 points that it tallied vs. Samford on Nov. 5. Talaysia Cooper (20) and Ruby Whitehorn (10) combined for 30 of their team’s points over the opening 20 minutes vs. Liberty. 

S(T)EALING THE DEAL: Tennessee has concluded three of four contests with 15 or more steals so far this season. The Lady Vols recorded 27 against Samford, 18 versus UT Martin and 17 against Liberty. It marks the first time since the 2018-19 season that Tennessee has recorded 15 or more steals three times in a year. UT finished with three total that season. Talaysia Cooper paces the squad with 15 steals, while Kaniya Boyd follows with 12 on the young season. In total, the Lady Vols have captured 75 steals thus far and are averaging 18.8 per game. 

SOARIN’ AND SCORIN’: For the first time in program history Tennessee has scored 89 or more points in each of its first four games of a season. It has now accomplished a four-game run of 89+ games for only the fifth time ever at any point during a schedule. 

SAM SHARES THE ROCK: Senior Samara Spencer leads the squad with 21 assists, finishing with a season-best six during Saturday’s matchup. Spencer has tallied five or more dimes in every game so far and is averaging 5.3 steals per contest.