KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Lady Vol basketball team posted a program first, hitting 100 points three times during the first five games of a season, as it forced 37 turnovers and raced to a 102-50 victory to close out a November slate of games undefeated.
With a crowd of 9,086 looking on at Food City Center, Tennessee (5-0) followed a 109-point performance vs. Liberty on Nov. 16 and a 101-point showing vs. Samford on Nov. 5 with a third trip over the century mark. The quickest UT had done that before was three times in the first eight contests in 1987-88. It also marked the first back-to-back 100-point games recorded by the Big Orange since the 2017-18 season, when the team won, 104-51, vs. Alabama State on Dec. 3 and, 131-69, vs. Troy on Dec. 6.
Redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper led five Lady Vols in double figures with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including 4-for-6 accuracy beyond the three-point arc. That effort came on the heels of a 33-point game vs. Liberty on Nov. 16. Scoring 10+ points along with Cooper were Ruby Whitehorn with 16, Tess Darby with 12 and Zee Spearman and Samara Spencer with 11 each.
Whitehorn and sophomore Alyssa Latham led the Lady Vols on the boards, pulling down seven each, with Whitehorn grabbing five offensive caroms and Latham four to fuel a 31-4 disparity on the o-glass. That edge allowed UT to outscore WCU (5-3) by a 31-4 count in second chance points.
The Catamounts placed only one player in double figures, with Avyonce Carter dropping 18 on the night.
After Western Carolina took a quick 2-0 lead, Tennessee bounced back with consecutive buckets from Whitehorn, Favor Ayodele, Jillian Hollingshead and Spencer to build a 7-2 advantage. The Lady Vols proceeded to carry an 11-6 edge into the 4:43 media timeout courtesy of a Cooper turnaround jumper. UT outscored WCU only 12-8 the rest of the period to take a 23-14 edge into the second frame on the strength of a pair of Cooper threes that ran her personal scoring total to 10 over the opening 10 minutes.
The Big Orange tallied the first four points of the second stanza, getting layups by Whitehorn and Hollingshead to increase the score to 27-14 before forcing the Catamounts to call a timeout after being trapped by a vigorous UT press. The Lady Vols would pour it on from there, going on a 21-6 tear and forcing another Western Carolina timeout with 2:23 left after Darby drained a three-pointer to give her team a 48-20 lead. The teams exchanged buckets the rest of the half, with Tennessee taking a 54-28 margin into the locker room.
UT exploded on an 11-2 run to open the third, with Zee Spearman scoring seven of those points and Whitehorn dropping in a layup on a pass from Darby to make it 65-30 and force another WCU timeout with 5:54 to go in the period. The Lady Vols outscored the Catamounts, 12-9, the rest of the quarter, getting a three-pointer from Darby to close out the frame leading 77-39 after hurrying WCU into 13 turnovers during that stanza.
The Big Orange kicked off the final frame on a 9-3 burst, forcing the final timeout by the visitors after an Avery Strickland corner three and a Darby steal and layup pushed the gap to 86-42 at the 6:30 mark. The Lady Vols racked up some close-range buckets over the remainder of the contest, getting layups from Kaniya Boyd, Ayodele, Whitehorn, Spearman and Latham as well as treys by Whitehorn and Strickland to finish out the game on a 16-8 flourish.
UP NEXT: Tennessee is back in action on Dec. 4, when RV/RV Florida State (5-1) comes to Knoxville for an SEC-ACC Women’s Basketball Challenge contest at Food City Center. Tip-off is slated for 7:15 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised by SEC Network.
