KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee women’s basketball team eclipsed the century mark in a season opener for just the sixth time in its illustrious history, cruising to a 101-53 victory over Samford Tuesday night in Kim Caldwell‘s debut as Lady Vol head coach.
With a crowd of 9,515 looking on at Food City Center, five Big Orange players scored in double figures to lead the charge. Junior forward Zee Spearman racked up 15 points in the fourth quarter and finished with a career-high 25 to chart the second-highest total ever by a Lady Vol in her debut game. Redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper was next for Tennessee (1-0) with 19, followed by fifth-year guard Jewel Spear with 18, senior guard Samara Spencer with 12 and junior guard Ruby Whitehorn with 10. Spear drained four threes to aid her cause and help the home team card 10 long balls for the game.
Samford (0-1) was paced by four in double figures, with Claire Johnson tossing in 13, Emily Bowman and Kennedy Langham 12 each, and Annie Ramil 11. The Bulldogs, who were held to 35.7 percent field goal percentage and 15 percent (3-20) beyond the arc, committed 37 turnovers that led to 50 Lady Vol points on the night.
SU grabbed early 3-2 and 7-5 edges before the Lady Vols seized the lead for good with a 10-0 run. Cooper fueled the spree, pushing her point total to seven and giving UT a 15-7 advantage heading into the 5:03 media timeout with back-to-back layups. The teams exchanged scores over the final five minutes of the opening stanza, with Whitehorn converting a layup off an inbounds pass from Spencer to send the home team into the second quarter with its largest lead at 26-17.
The Lady Vols opened the second period with an 11-0 surge, extending an active run to 14 to take a 37-17 lead into the 4:58 media timeout on a Spear three. Tennessee stymied the Bulldogs into 0-for-5 shooting to keep the visitors scoreless during that span. Coming out of the timeout, UT tallied the next seven points to extend its scoring streak to 21, building a 44-17 lead on a Whitehorn bucket with 3:47 left in the half. A Spear trey with 21 seconds remaining sent the Big Orange into the intermission leading 49-26.
Tennessee burst out of the locker room with an 8-0 gush that extended a run from the second quarter to 13-0. Cooper was good for six points during that blitz, and a Kaniya Boyd layup forced Samford to take a timeout with 5:58 to go in the frame with UT up by its largest margin, 61-28. Spearman and Spear helped Tennessee end the quarter with a 78-42 lead, as Spearman scored six straight and Spear knocked down a trey before the buzzer sounded.
The fourth quarter was all Spearman, as she accounted for all but eight of the Lady Vols’ 23 points in the frame. She finished six of seven from the field, including several layups and a transition three-pointer that pushed the gap to 94-48 with 3:26 left. Her bucket from long range was part of a 19-2 advantage in points off turnovers in the period, with UT grabbing nine steals and forcing 12 Samford miscues.
NEXT UP: The Lady Vols are back in action on Thursday, as they welcome UT Martin to Food City Center. The contest is slated for a 6:30 p.m. tipoff with coverage on SECN+ and from 99.5FM WGRV beginning at 6pm
