GREENVILLE, S.C. — No. 18/17 Tennessee overcame a slow start and outscored Texas A&M by 42 points over the final three quarters to claim a 77-37 opening-round victory over the Aggies on Wednesday in the Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
Redshirt sophomore Talaysia Cooper, who left UT’s regular-season finale on Sunday with a lower body injury, returned to action, coming off the bench to lead all scorers with 19 points while adding team highs of eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. Fifth-year guard Jewel Spear and junior forward Zee Spearman added 11 points each, while senior guard Samara Spencer chipped in 10 for the No. 9-seeded Lady Vols (22-8).
The 16th-seeded Aggies (10-19), who lost their 11th-straight game, were paced by Sahara Jones, who produced a 16-point, 13-rebound double-double.
Texas A&M grabbed an early 3-0 lead by the 8:41 mark and moved ahead 5-2 before a three-pointer by Alyssa Latham tied things up at 5-all with 5:43 remaining. A Solé Williams trey, though, sent the Aggies into the first media timeout with an 8-5 lead with 4:57 left in the period. Tennessee grabbed its first lead, 9-8, on a free throw by Jillian Hollingshead and a three by Spear with 4:44 left, but A&M pushed back in front, 13-9, before a Spear jumper drew her team to within two, 13-11, by the end of the first frame despite the Big Orange hitting just 19 percent from the field.
The Lady Vols started to warm up in the second stanza, taking a 16-13 lead by the 8:10 mark after a Spearman three and a Spencer layup. After the teams exchanged buckets and the Aggies cut the deficit to 18-17 on a pair of Jones free throws with 5:27 to go, Tennessee found another gear. A Cooper free throw and Spencer three-pointer built the lead to 22-17 with 4:47 to go, forcing a Texas A&M timeout. Free throws by Kaniya Boyd and Cooper, followed by a Cooper trey ballooned the lead to 11, 30-19, with 1:03 left. A pair of Spearman charity tosses with 32 seconds left extended UT’s burst to 14-2 and sent Tennessee into the intermission leading 32-19.
UT continued an 11-0 run spanning the halves, boosting its advantage to 17, 36-19, by the 8:42 mark on layups by Spearman and Ruby Whitehorn. After Texas A&M whittled the gap to 12, 38-26, by the 5:59 mark, a Latham jumper and layups by Hollingshead and Cooper sent their team into the 4:31 media timeout with a 42-26 margin. After a Boyd free throw and A&M bucket by Janae Kent made it 43-28, Lady Vols, Tennessee exploded on a 17-0 run with three straight layups by Cooper, a Tess Darby layup and a pair of Spear threes capping the proceedings. Their efforts, buoyed by UT’s 55-percent shooting during the period, helped make it a 32-point game, 60-28 at the end of the third.
A Spearman layup and Cooper jumper extended the quarter-spanning run to 21, tying UT’s season best spree, and making it 64-28 with 7:55 remaining. After an Aggie bucket, Tennessee put together another 10-0 flourish, with a Cooper layup, two Spencer free throws, a Latham put-back and a Spearman layup extending the margin to 42, 72-30, with 5:29 on the clock. With that, the Lady Vol bench took over and finished off a 40-point victory.
UP NEXT: The Lady Vols advanced to the second round and will face No. 8 seed Vanderbilt (21-9, 8-8 SEC) at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday. The contest will be televised on SEC Network and available on Lady Vol Network radio stations statewide and via audio stream on UTSports.com. Listen on 99.5FM WGRV beginning with coverage at 10:30am.
