KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 11 Tennessee came back from a 23-point first-half deficit and grabbed a three-point lead with just under five minutes remaining, but it couldn’t hold on in falling to Georgia, 72-69, on Sunday afternoon in front of 12,111 at Food City Center.
In her final regular season home game on Rocky Top, fifth-year senior guard Jewel Spear fired in a game-high 20 points to lead the Lady Vols (21-8, 8-8 SEC), including 10-of-10 accuracy at the free-throw line. Junior forward Zee Spearman and senior guard Samara Spencer also were in double figures, contributing 19 and 11 points, respectively.
Georgia (12-18, 4-12 SEC) was paced by five players in double figures. Mia Woolfolk led the way with 20 points, while De’Mauri Flournoy tallied 18, Asia Avinger and Trinity Turner tossed in 11 each and Roxane Makolo added 10. Fatima Diakhate pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to help her team top UT on the boards, 38-33.
UT showed some early game jitters and was forced to call a timeout after missing on its first nine attempts from the field and falling behind 8-0 with 5:12 left in the first quarter. UGA extended its lead to 11-0 with 4:23 to go before UT finally got on the board with 3:24 left on a Spearman layup. After the Lady Bulldogs extended their lead to 16 at 18-2 by the 2:39 mark, Tennessee reeled off eight straight on five free throws and a late Spear three to trim the gap to eight, 18-10, by the end of the period.
Georgia surged back in front by 15, 25-10, at the outset of the second stanza on a 7-0 burst that was capped by a Woolfolk baseline jumper, forcing another Big Orange timeout. The Lady Bulldogs pushed their stanza-opening run to 15, building a game-high 33-10 lead with 5:45 to go. A Tess Darby three finally ended the drought for UT with 5:39 to go. UT whittled the deficit to 13, 35-22, by the 1:52 mark on a trey by Spear, a layup by Jillian Hollingshead and a Talaysia Cooper jumper. The Lady Bulldogs twice went back up by 15, but a Spearman layup drew her team back to within 13, 39-26, by the intermission.
Tennessee scored the first five points to open the third frame, getting an Alyssa Latham layup, Hollingshead free throw and Kaniya Boyd coast-to-coast layup off a rebound to trim the margin to eight, 39-31, and force a Lady Bulldogs timeout with 7:45 remaining. Tennessee used another 8-0 punch to knot the game at 39-all with 5:01 to go on eight free throws split between Spear (4), Boyd (2) and Samara Spencer (2), with Spencer’s two charity tosses tying things up. Georgia responded and went back up by six, 46-40 with 1:47 remaining, but used pairs of free throws by Spear and Boyd as well as a late Spearman layup to end the third quarter down two, 48-46.
Georgia outscored Tennessee 7-4 to open the final stanza, taking a 55-50 lead with 7:09 remaining. The Lady Vols responded, though, with an 8-2 burst and took their first lead, 58-57, on a long Samara Spencer three with 5:29 left and moved ahead 60-57 by the 4:30 media timeout on a Spencer layup. The Lady Bulldogs, however, tied it up on a Flournoy three-pointer at the 3:56 mark and then matched a pair of Spear free throws at the 3:25 mark with a Woolfolk jumper to even it up at 62 with 2:23 remaining. A Makalo fast break layup boosted UGA ahead, 64-62, with 1:55 left, and the visitors built a lead as high as six points with 11 seconds remaining, 72-66, before a Boyd three accounted for the final three-point margin.
