Lady Vols 7-0 in SEC
Pat could definitely back this. Rickea Jackson scored a game-high 16 points, fellow senior Jordan Horston added 14 with 10 rebounds for yet another double-double, and the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team went 14 deep on its roster in a 74-56 win against Florida on Thursday night in Knoxville.
The Lady Volunteers completed a season sweep of the Gators, having won 77-66 on Dec. 29 in Gainesville, to improve to 15-6 overall. Tennessee is 7-0 in the Southeastern Conference for the second straight season, matching its best league start since a 13-0 run in 2015, when the Lady Vols wound up 15-1 in the SEC to win the regular-season championship.
Tennessee has won eight games in a row overall and 13 of its past 15, and the latest triumph came during “We Back Pat” week, which honors late Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt and brings attention to her namesake foundation that fights against Alzheimer’s disease.
Kellie Harper, the Tennessee native in her fourth season in charge at her alma mater, was a point guard who in the late 1990s helped the Lady Vols to three of their eight total NCAA tournament titles won under Summitt. Asked after Thursday’s victory against Florida (12-7, 1-5) about whether she has a favorite story about the legendary leader, Harper said there are too many to pick one but that a benefit of being Tennessee’s head coach is adding to the files.
“What she means to this program, to me, to this university — her touch was nationwide, worldwide, and it wasn’t just about sports,” Harper said in a new conference. “I’m reminded of that constantly in this position. So many people want to come tell me their story. Everybody has a Pat Summitt story. Everybody. It’s always really good to hear.”
Harper’s team paid tribute on the court. After trailing 15-12 after the first quarter, the Lady Vols settled down in the second and headed to halftime up 31-25, then really took off in the third, outscoring the Gators 26-16 in the quarter. Tennessee’s lead ballooned to 22 points midway through the fourth, and the home bench outscored Florida’s substitutes 42-5 in the game.
Of the 14 Lady Vols who got on the court, 10 spent at least 14 minutes there. None of them played more than Horston’s 28 as she posted her fifth double-double of the season and the 18th of her Tennessee career.
Horston also had four assists, two steals and a block — and like all of her teammates, she contributed to the win while wearing a jersey with the name Summitt on the back instead of her own.
“She led the way for women in general, and I’m just glad that we just got to win in that jersey,” Horston said in the news conference. “I think I might be undefeated in that jersey, to be honest.”
Tennessee returns to competition at 3 p.m. Eastern on Sunday at Missouri (14-5, 3-3).