Game Recap: Women’s Basketball | November 26, 2024
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Lady Vol basketball team posted a program first, hitting 100 points three times during the first five games of a season, as it forced 37 turnovers and raced to a 102-50 victory to close out a November slate of games undefeated.
With a crowd of 9,086 looking on at Food City Center, Tennessee (5-0) followed a 109-point performance vs. Liberty on Nov. 16 and a 101-point showing vs. Samford on Nov. 5 with a third trip over the century mark. The quickest UT had done that before was three times in the first eight contests in 1987-88. It also marked the first back-to-back 100-point games recorded by the Big Orange since the 2017-18 season, when the team won, 104-51, vs. Alabama State on Dec. 3 and, 131-69, vs. Troy on Dec. 6.
Redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper led five Lady Vols in double figures with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 4-for-6 accuracy beyond the three-point arc. That effort came on the heels of a 33-point game vs. Liberty on Nov. 16. Scoring 10+ points along with Cooper were Ruby Whitehorn with 16, Tess Darby with 12 and Zee Spearman and Samara Spencer with 11 each.
Whitehorn and sophomore Alyssa Latham led the Lady Vols on the boards, pulling down seven each, with Whitehorn grabbing five offensive caroms and Latham four to fuel a 31-4 disparity on the o-glass. That edge allowed UT to outscore WCU (5-3) by a 31-4 count in second chance points.
The Catamounts placed only one player in double figures, with Avyonce Carter dropping 18 on the night.
After Western Carolina took a quick 2-0 lead, Tennessee bounced back with consecutive buckets from Whitehorn, Favor Ayodele, Jillian Hollingshead and Spencer to build a 7-2 advantage. The Lady Vols proceeded to carry an 11-6 edge into the 4:43 media timeout courtesy of a Cooper turnaround jumper. UT outscored WCU only 12-8 the rest of the period to take a 23-14 edge into the second frame on the strength of a pair of Cooper threes that ran her personal scoring total to 10 over the opening 10 minutes.
The Big Orange tallied the first four points of the second stanza, getting layups by Whitehorn and Hollingshead to increase the score to 27-14 before forcing the Catamounts to call a timeout after being trapped by a vigorous UT press. The Lady Vols would pour it on from there, going on a 21-6 tear and forcing another Western Carolina timeout with 2:23 left after Darby drained a three-pointer to give her team a 48-20 lead. The teams exchanged buckets the rest of the half, with Tennessee taking a 54-28 margin into the locker room.
UT exploded on an 11-2 run to open the third, with Zee Spearman scoring seven of those points and Whitehorn dropping in a layup on a pass from Darby to make it 65-30 and force another WCU timeout with 5:54 to go in the period. The Lady Vols outscored the Catamounts, 12-9, the rest of the quarter, getting a three-pointer from Darby to close out the frame leading 77-39 after hurrying WCU into 13 turnovers during that stanza.
The Big Orange kicked off the final frame on a 9-3 burst, forcing the final timeout by the visitors after an Avery Strickland corner three and a Darby steal and layup pushed the gap to 86-42 at the 6:30 mark. The Lady Vols racked up some close-range buckets over the remainder of the contest, getting layups from Kaniya Boyd, Ayodele, Whitehorn, Spearman and Latham as well as treys by Whitehorn and Strickland to finish out the game on a 16-8 flourish.
UP NEXT: Tennessee is back in action on Dec. 4, when RV/RV Florida State (5-1) comes to Knoxville for an SEC-ACC Women’s Basketball Challenge contest at Food City Center. Tip-off is slated for 7:15 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised by SEC Network.
NEW FIVE, NO PROBLEM: Tennessee has opened each game of the season with a new starting lineup. The quintet of Sara Puckett, Samara Spencer, Ruby Whitehorn, Zee Spearman and Talaysia Cooper hit the floor first during the Lady Vols’ victory against Western Carolina. Puckett is the lone Lady Vol to start all five games, followed by Cooper, Whitehorn and Spencer with four starts and Spearman with her second.
TURNIN’ UP THE PRESSURE: Tennessee’s press has resulted in ten 10-second violations by opponents in only five games. The Big Orange carded a season-best five 10-second violations against the Catamounts on Tuesday evening. The Lady Vols surpassed last season’s total of those calls (1) in the season’s first game when Samford was whistled twice for failing to cross the timeline in the required 10 seconds. Their first 10-call vs. WCU was the sixth of the season, giving UT more than the past five seasons combined. With UT not utilizing a press in most cases, the breakdowns of 10-second infractions by opponents during that five-year span were zero in 2019-20, zero in 2020-21, four in 2021-22, zero in 2022-23 and one in 2023-24.
9,000 STRONG: Tennessee recorded its fifth crowd of 9,000-plus fans on Tuesday night against Western Carolina. It marks the strongest start to a season since 2013-14, when the final average was 11,038 (No. 1 nationally). Tennessee has sold more than 8,000 season tickets this year (8,001+) for the first time since 2015-16. UT finished last season No. 7 nationally in attendance, averaging 8,880 fans through 15 regular season home dates and entered tonight ranked No. 6 in 2024-25 at 9,527 through four games at Food City Center.
CREATING CHAOS: The Lady Vols turned the Catamounts over 37 times during the course of Tuesday’s contest. The 37 miscues tied the season high for a foe, marking the third time this season that the Lady Vols have forced 30 or more errors by an opponent. The Lady Vols entered the game ranked No. 4 nationally and No. 1 in the SEC in turnovers forced per game at 28.8. All five of Tennessee’s opponents thus far have committed at least 22 miscues, with Western Carolina (37), Samford (37) and UT Martin (31) losing the ball 30+ times. The last time the Big Orange forced three opponents in the first five games of a season to commit 30 or more turnovers was in 2014-15, when UT foes did that in three of the first four contests.
O-BOARDS, OH YEAH: Tennessee collected its second 30-plus offensive rebound effort thus far, grabbing 31 against Western Carolina. Previously, the Big Orange recorded a season-high 33 offensive boards against UT Martin on Nov. 7. Tennessee entered the game No. 1 in offensive rebounds per contest at 21.8 after grabbing 19 o-boards vs. MTSU and 14 vs. Liberty. UT’s work on the boards vs. WCU also allowed it to carve out a 31-4 edge on second chance points and tally a season-most 60 points in the paint.
