GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Tennessee overcame 15 fouls and 22-percent shooting in the first half and an 11-point second-quarter deficit to walk away with a hard-earned 86-78 road victory over Florida on Sunday at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.
The Lady Vols (21-6, 8-6 SEC) trailed 37-26 just before the half, but they flipped the script with a 37-point third quarter to claim their fourth-consecutive victory. Redshirt sophomore Talaysia Cooper, who was restricted to two minutes of playing time over the first 20 minutes due to foul trouble, fired in 15 points in the second half to finish with a team-high 18. Junior forward Zee Spearman tossed in 16, while senior guard Samara Spencer contributed an 11-point, 11-rebound double-double, and fifth-year guard Jewel Spear and junior guard Ruby Whitehorn added 10 points each.
The Gators (14-14, 5-9 SEC) were paced by Ra Shaya Kyle with 19 points and 10 boards. Laila Reynolds and Liv McGill each contributed 17, while Jeriah Warren chipped in 10.
Florida grabbed early 2-0 and 4-2 leads, but the Lady Vols punched back with an 8-0 run, getting a put-back by Jillian Hollingshead, a three-pointer by Cooper and an old-fashioned three-point play by Kaniya Boyd to snare a 10-4 lead with 6:46 remaining. Florida evened it up at 10, though, with a 6-0 spurt before the 4:21 media timeout. As an 8-2 foul disparity mounted for Tennessee, Florida closed out the period with a 6-of-10 effort at the charity stripe to fuel a 6-2 push and claim a 16-12 lead after one.
The Gators crept ahead by six again, 18-12, at the outset of the second stanza, but Sara Puckett capped an 8-2 run to even the score at 20 with 7:01 to go. The teams exchanged baskets midway through the frame, with UF inching ahead by three until a Spearman turnaround jumper drew the Big Orange to within one, 27-26, by the 4:18 media break. Florida remained the aggressor after the timeout, peeling off 10 consecutive points before Whitehorn hit a jumper with 28 seconds remaining that cut the deficit to nine, 37-28, at the intermission
Tennessee emerged from the locker room recharged, scoring first on a Hollingshead layup and then proceeding to outscore the Gators 11-4 to trim the gap to 41-39 and force a UF timeout with 7:30 remaining after an and-one by Spear and a three-ball by Spearman. The Lady Vols kept pushing tempo and turning up the pressure, getting a Spencer three, a Cooper paint jumper, an old-fashioned three-point play from Spear and a Cooper layup to put together a 10-4 run into the 4:41 media timeout and build a 49-45 lead. UT outscored UF, 11-6, with a Cooper layup giving her team a game-best nine-point lead, 60-51, with 1:47 to go. Before the end of the period, UF would cut the gap to five, 60-55, with 57 seconds left, but a pair of Cooper free throws sent the Big Orange into the final frame with a 65-57 advantage.
The Lady Vols elevated their lead to 11, 68-57, on a Cooper three just 13 seconds into the final frame, but Florida trimmed the margin to five, 68-63, forcing a Tennessee timeout with 7:13 to go. The Gators were able to slice their deficit to four at the 5:16 and 4:16 marks, but a Whitehorn bucket in the paint boosted her team back to a nine-point advantage, 82-73, with 1:38 remaining. A three from Alexia Dizeko and free throws from Laila Reynolds brought the home team back within four, 82-78, with 56 ticks on the clock. A Spearman and-one play with 44 seconds to go and a Spencer free throw with 13 seconds remaining, though, allowed the Big Orange to persevere on a day where nothing came easy.
UP NEXT: Next on the schedule for the Lady Vols is a 7 p.m. ET Thursday contest vs. #14/14 Kentucky at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington. The contest will be televised on SEC Network and also will be broadcast on Lady Vol Network radio stations statewide and via audio stream on UTSports.com.
