Lady Vols roll 77-37 in opening game of the SEC Tournament, Vanderbilt awaits
Tennessee Lady Vol coach Kim Caldwell said she wanted her team to get their identity back. Which means producing turnovers and taking more shots than their opponent. Mission accomplished as the Lady Vols throttled Texas A&M 77-37 in the opening game of the SEC Tournament.
“It was really important for us to kind of get back to our roots,” Caldwell said after the game. “I think the way we finish the last week and half of our season was really heartbreaking. Just getting back to our effort and keeping the pressure on was really important to us. And I thought they did a better job today of playing hard when shots weren’t going in which was not the case last week.”
Tennessee was routed at Kentucky six days ago and Sunday had their worst loss of the year losing to Georgia on senior day. The result was instead of opening play on Thursday in the SEC Tournament, they kicked the tournament off against the Aggies. We will see how Tennessee plays tomorrow against Vanderbilt, but getting the first game out of the way in tournament play isn’t always a bad thing.
“It’s always a little big nerve wracking when your players know more about a situation than you do. It was really good for us to come in and get one under our belt,” Caldwell offered.
Tennessee trailed 13-11 after the first quarter, then turned up the heat outscoring the Aggies 66-24 the rest of the way. The Lady Vols forced 32 turnovers which generated 37 points. They took 80 shots compared to 49 by Texas A&M.
The Lady Vols were led by Talaysia Cooper who was listed as day to day after missing the second half against Georgia with an ankle injury. The South Carolina native looked 100% Wednesday as she led the team with 19 points on 8 of 15 shooting. She had 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
“She was fantastic today,” Caldwell said. “That’s what we have been trying to get her to do all year, go downhill in transition, be at the top of the press and when she’s on we are on.”
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Jewel Spear and Zee Spearman both added 11 points and Samara Spencer had 10 to lead the way.
Up next is Vanderbilt (Thursday, 11am ET, SEC Network). The Commodores beat the Lady Vols 71-70 earlier in the year on an offensive put back as time expired by freshman sensation Mikayla Blakes. Tennessee played catch up all afternoon after scoring just 5 points in the second quarter in Nashville.
“They had our number last game,” Caldwell said. “It’s going to be really important for us to get a quick reset. That’s a really hard team to play with no prep. They run a lot of sets and a lot of action so we have to go get rest, watch film and hopefully get that one back.”
Tennessee is now 22-8 on the season and is projected as a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament meaning they will be on the road. Thursday is a must win if they are to have any hopes of moving up to a 4-seed and hosting the first two rounds in Knoxville.
