KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Nya Robertson was in a zone on Sunday, knocking down a school-record 10 three-pointers and tying her career best with 32 points as No. 15/13 Tennessee cruised past Coppin State, 88-35, at Food City Center and picked up its NCAA-best 1,500th all-time win.
Robertson, a 5-foot-7 senior guard from Fort Worth, Texas, connected on 10 of 16 attempts from beyond the arc, breaking the previous UT women’s best of nine threes, set last season by Samara Spencer vs. NC Central on Dec. 14, 2024, and tying for third in SEC history with that total. Her 16 tries from long range rank second in Lady Vol annals.
The Lady Vols (5-1), who won their fifth straight game and saw their all-time record improve to 1,500-398, also got 19 points from senior forward Janiah Barker, 11 from redshirt senior guard Talaysia Cooper and 10 from senior forward Zee Spearman. Cooper finished with a game-high 11 rebounds, and her career-high nine assists and seven steals left her just shy of UT’s sixth triple-double and within range of the program’s first quadruple-double.
The Eagles (1-5), who committed 36 turnovers on the afternoon, became the first team since Howard on Dec 29, 2019, to finish without a player scoring in double figures vs. the Big Orange. Shanaii Gamble had eight points to lead CSU, while Patricia Sosa Lora pulled down 10 rebounds.
Tennessee grabbed early 2-0, 4-0 and 7-5 leads on a fall-away shot by Barker, a Cooper jumper and a Mia Pauldo three, respectively, but Coppin State scored five points on three turnovers and forced a UT timeout after Princess Nwachukwu hit a rebound bucket to knot things up at 7-7 with 6:47 to go in the opening stanza. After a course correction during the break, the Lady Vols unleashed an 11-0 run, ignited by treys from Robertson and Kaniya Boyd, and capped by another Robertson deep ball to make it 18-7 with 4:27 to go. After CSU shaved the deficit to five, 18-13, the home team outscored the Eagles 5-2 the rest of the way to take at 23-15 edge into the second stanza.
The Big Orange built its biggest lead of the game, 29-15, after a pair of Barker layups and another score by Mia Pauldo off three Coppin State turnovers, forcing the Eagles to ask for time with 7:49 remaining in the second period. The Lady Vols pushed the gap to 20, 37-17, by the 3:49 mark, getting another Robertson three to fuel that spree. The Big Orange enhanced the advantage to 24 by the break, getting a pair of buckets by Spearman and a Robertson jumper to take a 45-21 lead into the locker room after scoring 31 points on 22 CSU miscues.
Tennessee boosted its lead to 30, 53-23, on a Cooper layup, Deniya Prawl free throw and Spearman three-ball before Coppin State hit a pair of free throws to trail 53-25, at the 4:49 media break. The Lady Vols continued to pull away in the late stages of the third quarter, getting a pair of Robertson three-pointers to surge ahead 67-31 entering the final frame.
The fourth was all Robertson, as she scorched the nets with 5-of-7 shooting beyond the arc for 15 points. After Boyd and Barker opened the period with pairs of free throws, Robertson hit three straight from range and forced a CSU timeout. She added two more treys before she was done and helped close out the season-best 53-point victory.
NEXT UP: TWO ON THE WEST COAST
After facing Coppin State, the Lady Vols will prepare for a post-Thanksgiving trip to the West Coast for games at No. 3/3 UCLA on Nov. 30 and at RV/NR Stanford on Dec. 3.
