MEMPHIS, Tenn. — No. 18/16 Tennessee placed six players in double figures in its first true road game of the season, earning a hard-fought, 90-75 victory over Memphis at FedExForum on Wednesday night.
Fifth-year guard Jewel Spear was back in the lineup after a one-game absence due to injury, carding season highs with 18 points, six rebounds and four assists to help her team improve to 9-0. Junior forward Zee Spearman had co-scoring honors and produced her first double-double as a Lady Vol, working the paint with 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Talaysia Cooper added a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double and was joined in the 10-plus scoring club by Tess Darby and Samara Spencer with 12 each, and Ruby Whitehorn with 10.
Tilly Boler tossed in 23 points to pace the Tigers (2-8), while Tanyuel Welch had 16 and Michigan State transfer DeeDee Hagemann poured in 19 in her UM debut. Hagemann, an All-Big Ten selection for the Spartans, was a difference-maker for her new team with 14 points in the first half.
After Memphis got on the scoreboard first, Darby gave the Lady Vols their first lead at 3-2 with 9:18 remaining on a long-range bucket. The Tigers scored back-to-back baskets to grab the lead back, 7-3, before Sara Puckett and Spear evened things at seven with 6:32 to go. After the Tigers reclaimed the lead, a Whitehorn putback pulled her team to within one, 10-9, before UM scored to take a 12-9 edge into the 4:53 media break. Memphis pushed its lead to six, 15-9, at the 4:02 mark before a Kaniya Boyd putback and Darby three drew their team to within one, 15-14, with 3:05 to go. With 51 seconds to go in the frame, Spear tied it up at 19, converting an old-fashioned three-point play. A three-pointer by Whitehorn propelled her team into the lead, 22-19, and UT maintained a 22-21 advantage heading to the second stanza.
Tennessee grabbed its largest lead at 27-23 to open the second quarter on a Spear three and Spearman layup, forcing a Tigers timeout at the 8:46 mark. Memphis came out of the break fired up, reeling off 11 straight points to seize a seven-point lead, 34-27, with 5:45 to go. The Big Orange whittled the lead to two on a Cooper driving layup with 3:35 remaining, but UM pushed the difference back to six, 41-35, with 2:06 to go. The Lady Vols showed resiliency, putting together a seven-point run on a pair of Spearman buckets sandwiching a Spear three to send Tennessee into the intermission with a 42-41 lead.
The Lady Vols put together a 5-0 burst out of the locker room to extend their run to 14-0 bridging the halves and built their largest lead at eight, 49-41, before a foul call review sent the teams into a media timeout with 8:40 remaining. Memphis scored twice out of the break to pull to within four, but Tennessee used a 9-2 run to build a 58-47 gap by the 4:34 media timeout with threes by Spencer and Darby helping create separation. A Spearman layup pushed the lead to 13, 60-47, right out of the break and Darby extended it to 12, 63-51, with a dagger beyond the arc with 2:04 to go. Four straight Spearman free throws lifted her team to a 67-52 advantage with 55 seconds on the clock, and Spear sent her squad to the final frame with 69-54 lead via a layup.
Memphis would not go away, scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to eight, 69-62, with 8:19 to go. The Lady Vols, though, steadied themselves with a Spencer three to stem the tide. Back-to-back layups by Cooper and Spearman sent the Big Orange into the 4:14 media break with a 79-66 cushion. The Tigers got as close as 10 down the stretch, but Cooper tallied six points over the final four minutes to enable the Big Orange to start out their three-game road trip with a victory.
UP NEXT: Tennessee departs after the game for Florida, where the Lady Vols will play in the West Palm Beach Classic this weekend. UT will meet Richmond on Friday at 2:15 p.m. ET and follow with an 11 a.m. ET tilt on Saturday vs. Tulsa before heading home. Baller TV will stream both games, and Lady Vol Network stations statewide and UTSports.com will have the radio broadcast from 99.5FM WGRV.
