Tennessee rallies to defeat South Carolina
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee continues to show just how vulnerable South Carolina can be when the Gamecocks don’t have star center A’ja Wilson in the lineup.
Rennia Davis had 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists Sunday as the 15th-ranked Lady Volunteers rallied for a 6546 victory over the seventh-ranked Gamecocks. South Carolina was playing without Wilson, as a case of vertigo prevented the Southeastern Conference scoring leader from making the trip to Knoxville.
Wilson’s status for this week’s SEC tournament remains uncertain.
“I’ll be on bended knee, hoping that she’ll be back Friday,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “I don’t know. I think first and foremost is her health and making sure that she’s healthy. We’re just going to take it day by day obviously because vertigo isn’t anything you play around with.”
Staley said Wilson started showing some symptoms Friday and that the 6-foot-5 senior’s condition was confirmed as vertigo Saturday.
This marked the second time this season Tennessee (236, 11-5 SEC) played South Carolina (23-6, 12-4) when the Gamecocks didn’t have Wilson, who averages 22.9 points and 12 rebounds. Tennessee won 86-70 at South Carolina on Jan. 14 when Wilson was out with an ankle injury.
Tennessee and South Carolina could meet a third time Friday. If the seventh-seeded Lady Vols beat No 10 seed Auburn in the SEC tournament Thursday, they would face the second-seeded Gamecocks in a Friday quarterfinal.
Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick said Tennessee didn’t dramatically alter its game plan when it became apparent Wilson wouldn’t play. Warlick noted that South Carolina has plenty of firepower even without the national player of the year candidate.
“South Carolina’s very capable of winning a basketball game, I think, without A’ja Wilson,” Warlick said.
Even so, the box score reflected the impact of Wilson’s absence. South Carolina (23-6, 12-4) had its highest turnover total (21) and lowest point total of the season as its five-game winning streak disintegrated.
Tennessee pulled ahead for good by scoring the first 14 points of the third quarter to turn a 26-21 halftime deficit into a 35-26 advantage. Tennessee ended up outscoring South Carolina 29-9 in the third quarter.
“We really came out in the third quarter and just jumped on them defensively,” said Tennessee senior Mercedes Russell, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds in her final career regular-season home game. “Our press was really good, really forced a lot of turnovers and kind of sped them up in the offense. I think that’s what really helped us get on a run.”
Mikiah Herbert Harrigan started in Wilson’s place and scored a team-high 17 points. The only other South Carolina player in double figures was Doniyah Cliney with 14 points.
Russell and Davis scored all of Tennessee’s points until Meme Jackson hit two free throws with 2:03 left until halftime.
Once Russell and Davis got more help, the Lady Vols took over the game.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Anriel Howard turned in her sixth straight double-double and became Texas A&M’s career and single-season rebounding record-holder as the Aggies beat Missouri.
Howard had 16 points and 10 rebounds for 923 boards in her career, passing Prissy Sharpe (920 from 1996-2000), and 360 this season, tying Peggy Pope (1978-79).
Chennedy Carter scored 23 points and Danni Williams 20 for the Aggies (22-8, 11-5), who finished in a four-way tie for fourth place with Missouri (23-6, 11-5), LSU and Tennessee in the SEC.
ATHENS, Ga. — Senior Mackenzie Engram and freshman Gabby Connally each scored 12 points and Georgia beat Florida.
Georgia (24-5, 12-4 Southeastern Conference), which was picked eighth in the SEC preseason poll after a 16-15 finish last season, has only lost to teams currently ranked in the Top 25.
Caliya Robinson added 11 points and Taja Cole 10 for Georgia.
Funda Nakkasoglu was the only Florida (11-18, 3-13) player in double figures with 10 points.
BATON ROUGE, La. — Ayana Mitchell scored a careerhigh 27 points on 11-of-13 shooting with 12 rebounds and a game-saving blocked shot with a second left and LSU defeated Alabama in overtime.
Chloe Jackson led the Tigers (19-8, 11-5) with 31 points. The Crimson Tide (17-12, 7-9) is the eighth seed.
Hannah Cook contested jumper to the right of the lane put Alabama up 70-68 with 3.5 seconds left in regulation. The Tide committed a non-shooting foul with 1.9 to go before Khayla Pointer inbounded the ball deep to Mitchell in the lane for the turnaround tying shot with less than a second to go.
Cook led Alabama (17-12, 7-9) with 18 points.