TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 20/20 Tennessee completed its largest comeback of the season and won its sixth-straight game, bouncing back from 10 down in the first quarter to stay unbeaten in SEC play with a 70-59 victory over No. 21/21 Alabama on Sunday afternoon at Coleman Coliseum.
The Lady Vols (13-3, 5-0 SEC), fell behind 13-3 early, built a pair of 10-point leads in the third quarter and fell behind by one, 54-53, with 7:19 to go in the game before outscoring the Crimson Tide, 17-5, over the final seven minutes. That closing kick enabled the Big Orange to win for only the second time in its last seven trips to Tuscaloosa and post a couple of Kim Caldwell era bests with a fifth-straight SEC win and fourth-consecutive triumph on the road.
Redshirt junior guard Talaysia Cooper led five UT players in double figures with 16 points. Freshman guard Mia Pauldo was next with 13, while junior forward Zee Spearman and junior forward Alyssa Latham chipped in 12 and senior forward Janiah Barker added a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Jessica Timmons paced UA (17-3, 3-3 SEC) with a game-high 22 points, while Karly Weathers contributed 11 and Naomi Jones yanked down 11 boards as they saw their 18-game home winning streak come to an end.
Alabama came out firing, connecting on four of its first five shots, including a pair of threes, to build a 10-3 lead and force a Lady Vol timeout with 6:24 to go in the first quarter. The Crimson Tide continued its momentum out of the break, extending the lead to 10, 13-3, courtesy of an 11-0 run. UT ended the spree on a Latham steal and score and got a pair of buckets and a free throw from Barker to trim the gap to three, 13-10, with 2:12 left. UT got as close as two, 14-12, with 52 seconds remaining, but a UA three-pointer and then a Spearman layup ended the period with the home team on top by three, 17-14.
The Lady Vols buckled down in the second stanza, exploding with a 10-2 spree and taking a 24-19 lead on a pair of buckets from Cooper and back-to-back threes from Jaida Civil and Mia Pauldo to force an Alabama timeout with 6:47 remaining. A Barker trey extended Tennessee’s run to 9-0 and gave her team its largest lead of the contest, 27-19, with 5:45 to go. The teams exchanged scores the rest of the half with a Latham layup sending the Big Orange into the locker room with a 35-28 advantage, thanks to UT’s 52.9-percent shooting in the frame.
Tennessee worked the lead to 10 on a pair of Cooper three-balls early in the third, but a three-point response from Alabama’s Weathers trimmed the gap to seven, 41-34, by a 6:44 media timeout occurring during an official review. Latham pushed UT ahead by nine, 43-34, via a layup with 4:28 remaining, but the Tide edged within six, 43-37, on a Timmons jumper just before the 4:02 media break. A Latham layup and Spearman put-back, and-one boosted the Big Orange lead to 10, 51-41, with 39 seconds left, but an old-fashioned three-point play by Timmons and a layup by Alancia Ramsey pulled the home team to within five, 51-46, at the end of three.
Alabama used an 8-2 run to grab a 54-53 edge with 7:19 remaining in the game, but a pair of free throws and a three by Mia Pauldo propelled the Lady Vols back on top, 58-54, entering the 6:28 media timeout. A Deniya Prawl put-back and Mia Pauldo three extended the cushion to seven, 63-56, with 3:54 remaining. Then, a spinning Cooper jumper pushed it to 65-58 with 3:01 left, and Tennessee closed out the victory by hitting five free throws down the stretch to complete a 12-for-14 day at the charity stripe.
NEXT UP
Tennessee returns home for its next contest on Thursday, as No. 7/9 Kentucky pays a visit to Knoxville. The match-up is slated for 6:30 p.m. ET at Food City Center. The game will be televised on SEC Network and carried on Lady Vol Radio Network stations with audio streaming on UTSports.com.
