Lady Vols roll to victory over Carson-Newman,

KNOXVILLE — Holly Warlick looked at the stat sheet, noted the scoring of her Tennessee basketball team Monday and smiled.

“I’ll take that any day,” she said.

The 12th-ranked Lady Vols dominated their lone exhibition game Monday, defeating NCAA Division II visitor Carson-Newman 128-59 in front of 3,267 at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tennessee dressed only 10 players, but eight of them scored in double figures against the overmatched Eagles, who won 32 games last season and advanced to the D-II Elite Eight.

Tennessee had 27 assists on 52 made baskets.

“This is a very unselfish basketball team,” Warlick said. “This is a great example of our togetherness; our tight-knit group, coaching each other, helping each other, excited for each other. This is a long time coming, to see a group so passionate about each other’s success. I just think they don’t care who gets the credit — they just want to win the basketball game.

“As a coach that’s what you want. You want to make sure you won the basketball game and somebody’s not upset they didn’t score 20 points.”

Tennessee starts its actual season Sunday at home against Presbyterian.

The Lady Vols forced 25 turnovers and turned those into 49 points. They scored at least 30 points in every quarter. They had 41 second-chance points off 32 offensive rebounds — one more than Carson-Newman had total rebounds. Tennessee held a 72-31 edge on the boards.

Tennessee did everything well except shoot outside, making 66 percent inside 3-point range but only 21 percent outside of it. They struggled at the freethrow line as well, making 19 of their 36 attempts.

Zaay Green led the way with 28 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals in 22 minutes off the bench. Rennia Davis was next with 17 points and added nine rebounds and four assists, followed by Mimi Collins and Cheridene Green with 16 points each and 10 and eight rebounds.

Kasiyahna Kushkituah and former Hamilton Heights standout Jazmine Massengill had 12 points apiece, Massengill adding nine rebounds, while Evina Westbrook and Rae Burrell chipped in 11 each. Westbrook had a team-high eight assists and four steals.

“For this team, if we play at the pace we need to depending on who we’re going against, we’ll be good at it,” Cheridene Green said. “We want to play fast; we want to play how we need to at that moment in time.” The Lady Vols jumped to a 21-2 lead, holding the Eagles without a field goal for the first 6:35 of the game. Tennessee never took its foot off the pedal, employing a full-court style that harassed the Carson-Newman guards relentlessly. If the Eagles elected to bypass a 3 and drive into the lane, the Lady Vols’ height was there to deter them.

“We worked a lot on our defense this offseason. There were a lot of drills we worked on,” Cheridene Green said. “I think it worked, but down the stretch that’s when our defense will get put to the test.”

Mika Wester and Kelci Marosites had 11 points each to lead CNu, which shot 29 percent from the field, 17 percent from 3-point range.