Big second half sends Lady Vols past Vandy
Rickea Jackson scored a game-high 21 points to lead a trio of Tennessee players in double figures, Jordan Horston had another solid all-around performance, and the Lady Volunteers used a decisive third quarter to pull away from Vanderbilt for an 86-59 win Sunday afternoon in Knoxville.
The 9,224 in attendance at Thompson-Boling Arena saw a tight first half between the in-state Southeastern Conference rivals — the score was 21-all after the first quarter, and it was tied at 38 at halftime — before the Lady Vols (18-9, 10-2) scored the first nine points of the third quarter as their rebounding and defense began to create opportunities on the other end. When the period was over, Tennessee led 66-46.
The advantage grew to 29 in the fourth quarter, ultimately allowing coach Kellie Harper’s team to celebrate a victory after nearly a week off since a 91-90 double-overtime defeat at Mississippi State that was Tennessee third loss in four games — the team’s roughest stretch since a shaky start in November.
“I think the flip started on the defensive end,” Harper, speaking during her team’s postgame news conference, said of Sunday’s third-quarter shift. “When we got stops, we were able to push the ball in transition, we were playing downhill, we were playing aggressive. It’s all related. You take good shots, you score, you get your defense set. You get stops, you can get your offense on a push.”
Jackson scored at least 20 points for the 10th time this season. Horston scored 18 points to go with nine rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal in 25 minutes — Harper said the Lady Vols are at their best when the senior is “stuffing the stats, and it does not have to be points” — and Tess Darby added 14 points and six rebounds.
Jordan Walker matched that number in rebounds (she also scored six points) and had a game-high eight assists — the Lady Vols totaled 19 — but most tellingly, Tennessee was 40 points better than Vanderbilt in the 25-plus minutes she was on the court.
“She’s a big part of who we are,” Harper said. “… You don’t see plus-40 very often, and that’s how she was affecting the game on both ends of the court. Six points and plus-40, I mean, she’s so valuable to our success.”
Marnelle Garraud had 16 points, Sacha Washington scored 12 and Ciaja Harbison added 11 with five assists for Vanderbilt (11-15, 2-10), which was coming off an 86-59 home win against Arkansas. The Commodores were swept in the regular-season series with Tennessee, which won 84-71 on Jan. 8 in Nashville.
Tennessee’s size advantage and execution inside showed Sunday with a 51-25 advantage in rebounds and a 48-14 domination of points in the paint.
“It felt like we were just getting buried underneath the basket,” coach Shea Ralph said in Vanderbilt’s postgame news conference.
The Lady Vols are down to their final four regular-season games. They’ll visit Arkansas (19-8, 6-6) at 7 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, then have back-to-back home games against Auburn next Sunday and No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 23 before closing the schedule Feb. 26 at Kentucky.
As they hit the final stretch, Sunday’s third quarter gives them a pretty good blueprint for what works best.
“It’s a lot more fun when our defense energizes us and motivates us to get easy points in transition and just take them out of rhythm,” Horston said. “I feel, like we said, came out and challenged ourselves in that third quarter and locked in.”