KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee women’s basketball remained unbeaten this season, outlasting a talented Florida State squad, 79-77, in a see-saw affair in front of a crowd of 9,529 on Wednesday night at Food City Center.
The Lady Vols (6-0) used a 13-0 run to build a 20-point second-quarter lead and took an 18-point advantage into the intermission before the Seminoles stormed back via a 13-point run of their own to grab a one-point edge, 53-52, with 3:03 to go in the third period. UT quickly retook the lead and ended up staving off the visitors in the fourth quarter as redshirt sophomore Talaysia Cooper (12) and junior Zee Spearman (10) combined for all 22 of their team’s points in the frame and the Big Orange outworked FSU on the glass, 13-6, including 8-2 on the offensive end.
For the third straight game, Cooper eclipsed 20 points and led Tennessee in scoring, dropping in 22 on 10-of-17 shooting from the field. Spearman finished with 13, followed by senior Samara Spencer with 11. Cooper, Spencer and sophomore Alyssa Latham each grabbed seven rebounds to lead the charge on the boards, as UT finished with a 50-39 differential, including 23-10 on the offensive end in a battle between two teams residing just outside of the top-25 polls.
Florida State (8-2), which saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end, was led by the nation’s leading scorer, Ta’Niya Latson, who fired in 38 points. Joining her in double figures were O’Mariah Gordon with 16, Makayla Timpson with 13 and Sydney Bowles with 10. Timpson also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for a double-double.
The Seminoles struck first on a layup by Gordon before UT seized a 5-2 lead on a Spearman three and a Cooper put-back. After FSU retook the lead, 6-5, the Lady Vols reeled off six straight points on buckets from Sara Puckett, Ruby Whitehorn and Jillian Hollingshead to move ahead 11-6 and force a timeout with 4:43 remaining in the opening stanza. UT built its lead to as many as eight, 21-13, with 2:02 to go, fueled by a three-pointer and layups by Whitehorn and Latham before the Seminoles cut the gap to six, 21-15, before the quarter’s end.
With both teams seeking their shooting touch, Tennessee sandwiched threes by Tess Darby and Spencer around a Spencer coast-to-coast layup to forge a 29-22 advantage by the 4:59 media break. An 11-3 burst, fueled by a trey and jumper from Cooper and threes by Darby and Jewel Spear pushed the lead to its biggest of the night at 40-25 and required another FSU timeout with 3:23 to go. Another Spear three out of the break and a Spencer layup helped the Big Orange shoot 56.3 percent for the period and extend the lead to 20, 45-25, with 2:06 remaining before a Seminole layup from Timpson with 1:22 to go concluded the scoring. The teams went to the locker room with the home team seemingly in command, 45-27.
Florida State worked itself back into the game quickly at the outset of the third frame. After UT’s Cooper hit a jumper to make it 47-27 with 9:48 remaining, the Seminoles reeled off a 13-0 run and a 17-2 burst in all to cut the gap to 49-44 and force a Lady Vol timeout with 5:37 remaining. Hollingshead hit a layup to slow the FSU momentum, but the visitors responded by scoring six straight points to send the teams into the 3:44 media timeout with Tennessee in front by one, 51-50. FSU grabbed its first lead since the early going, 53-52, with 3:03 left, but a Spencer three put her team back in front, 55-53, with 2:41 to go. UT would lead again 57-55, courtesy of a Latham layup, before the Seminoles knotted it up to send the game into the final 10 minutes tied at 57.
Cooper drew first blood in the final stanza on a layup and then hit a jumper, put-back and driving layup to give UT leads of 61-59, 63-59 and 65-61 early on. A Spearman layup with 4:51 to go and a tip-in with 3:58 left gave her team edges of 67-63 and 69-63, respectively. FSU answered at the 3:51 mark on a Latson layup to send teams into the media timeout with UT up 69-65. Right after the pause, Bowles pulled her team to within one, 69-68, via a long ball with 3:21 remaining. UT pushed the lead back to five twice, with a Cooper turnaround jumper in the paint making it 75-50 with 1:54 left on the clock. FSU kept coming, twice knotting the score at 75-75 with 1:16 left and 77-77 with 49 ticks remaining. Spearman, though, answered with a step-back jumper in the paint to give Tennessee a 79-77 lead with 24 seconds to go. A driving layup attempt by Latson just before the buzzer was off the mark, and Spearman was there to grab the rebound and preserve the victory.
UP NEXT: Tennessee hits the road for its first game outside of Food City Center, when it travels to Brooklyn, N.Y., to face No. 17/20 Iowa on Saturday night in the Shark Beauty Women’s Champions Classic. FOX will televise the game from the Barclays Center at 7 p.m. ET, and the Lady Vol Network and SiriusXM will have radio broadcast and audio stream as well.
UNDEFEATED WITH A FRESH FIVE: Tennessee has started the season 6-0 with six different starting lineups and eight different players appearing in the first five. Ruby Whitehorn, Samara Spencer, Zee Spearman, Tess Darby and Talaysia Cooper opened the contest on Wednesday evening against the Seminoles. Cooper, Spencer and Whitehorn notched their fifth starts, while Darby and Spearman made their third trips to the jump circle.
SIX STRAIGHT ON ROCKY TOP: Tennessee has won its first six games for the initial time since beginning the 2021-22 season at 9-0. This marks the first time since 2015-16 that UT has opened a campaign with six straight games at home. Tennessee played eight in a row here to start the 2015-16 schedule. The Lady Vols also dawned their “Summitt Blue” uniforms against Florida State, improving their record to 5-2 when wearing them, including 4-0 at home.
CALDWELL KEEPS CLIMBING: The Lady Vols’ 6-0 is the second-best opening of a season in Kim Caldwell‘s nine years as a head coach. Last game against Western Carolina, she had matched her 5-0 start at Glenville State in 2018-19. Top honors go to her 2021-22 GSU squad that started 29-0 on its way to 35-1 and an NCAA DII national title. A year ago, Caldwell’s Marshall team began the year 0-1 and 2-5 before reeling off a 24-2 record the rest of the way en route to 26-7 and a sweep of Sun Belt Conference titles. Other starts include 3-0 in 2016-17 and 2022-23, as well as 1-0 in 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2017-18.
ANOTHER 20-PLUS EFFORT FROM COOP: Redshirt sophomore Talaysia Cooper carded her fifth double-digit season performance, including her fourth consecutive, dropping 22 points versus Florida State. The Turbeville, South Carolina, native’s other double-digit games came against Samford (19), MTSU (18), Liberty (33) and Western Carolina (20), now giving her three consecutive games of 20+ scoring. She is averaging 19.7 points per game through six contests.
ALL ABOUT THE BOARDS: Tennessee etched its second game with 50 or more rebounds, pulling down 50 vs. Florida State. The Lady Vols had 54 vs. UT Martin on Nov. 7. The Lady Vols grabbed 23 offensive rebounds vs. the Seminoles, marking their fourth game with 20 or more on that end of the court for the NCAA’s leader in o-boards per game at 23.5. Talaysia Cooper, Samara Spencer and Alyssa Latham led the Big Orange with seven caroms a piece.
