KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 23/22 Tennessee demonstrated resiliency on Thursday afternoon, grabbing a sizeable lead and then taking Florida’s best punch before bouncing back and opening the SEC slate with a 76-65 win in front of 10,230 at Food City Center.
The Lady Vols (9-3, 1-0 SEC), who built a 17-point lead in the second quarter, saw that advantage disappear in the third frame as the Gators (12-4, 0-1 SEC) reversed the momentum during the middle two periods and seized a four-point lead. The Big Orange, though, responded by outscoring the visitors 30-15 the rest of the way to open conference play on a positive note and stay unbeaten at home in six outings this season.
Redshirt junior guard Talaysia Cooper led three Lady Vols in double figures, firing in 17 points. Senior forward Zee Spearman turned in a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Mia Pauldo chipped in 10 points, with eight of those coming at the free-throw line. Senior forward Janiah Barker hauled down 12 rebounds to help her team win the battle of the boards, 49-26, including 20-5 on the offensive end.
Florida’s Liv McGill tossed in 32 points to lead all scorers, while teammate Jade Weathersby added 11.
A Cooper layup put Tennessee on the scoreboard first, and the Lady Vols got a 10-2 burst to erase a 5-2 Gator lead, fueled by five points from Alyssa Latham and a Nya Robertson three-pointer to send the home team into the 4:47 media break with a 12-7 lead. The Big Orange began to widen the gap, building the lead to seven twice on a pair of Spearman free throws, a Lauren Hurst layup and a pair of Cooper scores before a Robertson trey ended the first frame with her team holding a 22-12 advantage.
UT surged ahead by 17 on a 7-0 run at the outset of the second stanza, extending the advantage to 29-12 and forcing a UF timeout with 8:19 remaining after a put-back by Spearman, a Cooper three and a Barker layup. The reset was beneficial for the Gators, as after a Hurst three made it 32-15, Florida outscored the Lady Vols 15-5 the rest of the way to trim the margin to seven, 37-30, at the half.
Florida whittled at the Tennessee lead early in the third, but the Big Orange restored the margin to seven twice, including 42-35, on a Spearman reverse layup with 8:36 to go before the Gators used a 5-0 run to cut the lead to two, 42-40, by the 7:09 media timeout. Florida tied it up three times at 42, 44 and 46 before scoring four straight points to move ahead 50-46 with 3:34 left. Cooper responded with a pair of mid-range jumpers and a three-ball, and Kaniya Boyd hit a driving layup to tip the scales back in favor of UT, 55-50, with 1:41 on the clock before a McGill layup at the 1:24 mark sent the teams into the final quarter with the home team up, 55-52.
Florida shaved the margin to 55-54 on a Weathersby layup at the opening of the fourth, but Tennessee repelled the Gators with a Spearman old-fashioned three-point play and a Pauldo layup to restore the gap to four twice. A Spearman layup and Cooper layup on a behind-the-back pass from Pauldo pushed UT up six, 64-58, before a McGill layup narrowed the gap to four, 64-60, by the 4:34 media break. The Lady Vols responded out of the breather with an 8-0 blitz, getting sets of free throws from Barker and Pauldo, a layup from Barker and a layup from Spearman to push ahead 72-60 by the 2:42 mark. Pauldo hit four of her eight free throws on the day over the final two minutes to seal the victory.
NEXT UP
Tennessee will hit the road for its next two contests. The Lady Vols will begin that stretch by playing at Auburn at 3 p.m. CT (4 p.m. ET) on Sunday, Jan. 4, at Neville Arena. The contest will be broadcast on SEC Network and carried on Lady Vol Radio Network stations with audio streaming on UTSports.com. Locally, listen on 95.5FM WSMG beginning at 2:30pm.
