More defense and less drama meant one thing above all to Tennessee Sunday afternoon: progress.
The Lady Vols brought down the curtain on their women’s basketball series with Louisiana Tech in hammer-like fashion, winning 94-59 before a crowd of 12,801 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The victory was Tennessee’s ninth in a row against Tech. The margin of victory was the largest in a rivalry that stretches back across 40 previous meetings to 1978.
For the Lady Vols, the finale was all about moving ahead.
“We took a step forward,’’ UT coach Pat Summitt said. “Hopefully we’ll be better because of it.”
Tennessee’s performance, built on the solid foundation of a 54-26 onslaught after halftime, was a far cry from Friday night’s shaky 3-point decision at Chattanooga. The result, along with the methods behind it, was an improvement over last Monday’s one-point setback against Virginia at the arena.
“We came out here today knowing what we can do,’’ Tennessee’s Alyssia Brewer said. “For some reason we’ve been hiding that. But it came out today and showed what we can possibly do.”
Nobody showed more than Brewer. The freshman forward scored 16 points and gathered 12 rebounds in 20 playing minutes. Classmate Amber Gray had comparable productivity — 16 points and seven rebounds — in the same amount of playing time.
Tennessee (3-1) had two other double-figure scorers with Vicki Baugh (13) and Glory Johnson (12) joining the group. The Lady Vols built huge advantages in points from the foul-lane area (54-26), points off turnovers (34-12) and second-chance points (33-11).
After shooting a miserable 53.5 percent on free throws (23 for 43) against Chattanooga, UT improved to 70.3 percent (26 for 37).
Guard Whitney Jones scored a game-high 23 points for Louisiana Tech (1-2) but no other Lady Techster scored more than nine. Tech made just nine second-half field goals and committed 28 turnovers.
Summitt made her point by stressing prevention beforehand. On Saturday, the team spent the majority of its practice session watching video of every defensive possession from Friday night’s 66-63 victory.
For good measure, Baugh set the proper tone on Sunday’s first possession by blocking a shot. In her second game back from reconstructive knee surgery, she added seven points and five rebounds before the first timeout.
The 6-foot-4 sophomore forward picked up right where she left off in recording a block, a clutch free throw and an offensive rebound during the final minute against Chattanooga.
“It’s definitely just helping me to find my role on the team,’’ said Baugh, who finished with 12 rebounds and four blocks in 17 minutes. “Also it helps my teammates to know how to play with me. We just have to build that chemistry together.”
The Lady Vols were a bit slow in following Baugh’s lead.
They lurched across the first half, leading by as many as 15 points but only 40-33 at the break. One Baugh basket to begin the second half, however, was all the added encouragement her teammates needed.
As defenders, Summitt said the Lady Vols were more aggressive and supported each other better.
“We tend to at times, not so much today, to be really glued to our player,’’ she said. “We’re either a player magnet or a ball magnet. But I think going through what we went through in our practice (Saturday) was really, really beneficial.”
As for the scoring, Brewer and Gray did most of their damage during the final 20 minutes, combining for 22 points. They also grabbed 14 of their 19 rebounds.
“I think both of them can help us,’’ Summitt said. “Lyssi, her size around the basket is very effective for us.
“Amber, if I had to say of all the freshmen, she may be the most skilled player. She’s not the most athletic, but she has a great skill set.”
In the face of Tennessee’s surge, Louisiana Tech ran out of players. Starters Adrienne Johnson, Shanavia Dowdell and Tiawana Pringle all fouled out during a two-minute span inside the final 10 minutes as Tennessee was padding its advantage.
“They played hard,’’ Tech coach Chris Long said of his players. “Maybe they played too hard.”
Tennessee’s press also took a toll, or rather Tech’s response to the defensive alignment.
“We haven’t been hurt with a press in three or four years,’’ Long said. “I didn’t expect it to hurt us tonight. Our turnovers against the press were often unforced. That was disappointing.”
Rocky Top League opening night
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Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 21
threehundredbowler writes:
way to go Lady Vols.
ps11824 writes:
Nice job Lady Vols. A win over La Tech is a huge win. There's boocoos of history between our schools. A good way to end the series. Good job Gray, Manning, Brewer. Vicki Baugh went out and set the tone for the team today. Nice stat line.
tnbigg writes:
Great job Lady Vols! Keep it up! I N T E N S I T Y!!!
LadyVolFanForever writes:
We are heading in the right direction, not there yet but making progress. Having Vicki on the court meant so much to the freshmen. Vicki led by example and you could see the difference it made in Brewer & Gray ! It was great to see.
blitzshoot writes:
Its been a good series. Hate to see it end.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
Congrats, ladies. Keep diggin'.
lewhs93#205993 writes:
Looking good ladies.Go Lady Vols.
xvolx writes:
good defense, free throw improving, rebounding still not blocking out, but fighting for ball, big improvement over va. and chatt. game. keep working every day in practice. listen to coach.
BigOrangeVol writes:
After six games (Including Exhibitions)...
Draw your own conclusions about our shooting:
Field Goal %
Cain – 60.7
Gray – 60.6
Brewer – 50.0
Baugh – 46.2
Johnson – 44.3
Manning – 42.2
Bass – 40.7
Stricklen – 39.7
McMahan – 38.1
Smallbone – 37.2
Fuller – 27.3
3-pt %
Smallbone – 33.3
Bass – 31.3
Manning – 30.0
Gray – 28.6
Stricklen – 25.0
Manning – 16.7
Fuller – (0-8)
Brewer – (0-2)
Free Throw %
Smallbone – 100 (1-1)
Gray – 83.3
McMahan – 81.8
Bass – 75.0
Fuller – 63.6
Stricklen – 62.5
Brewer – 59.1
Johnson – 55.9
Baugh – 55.6
Cain – 50.0
Manning – 40.0
Cain – 25.0
Timed_vol (Inactive) writes:
a weekend game helps. no classes, just basketball.
utbacker writes:
Big orange, what should we conclude? The only name near the top of all the categories is Gray.
rockytopron writes:
Go find something else to do. A hobby or something to cheer you up. It must really suck being a doomer gloomer.
rockytopron writes:
Good win for the Lady Vols. It shows some improvements have been made and this team will win a lot of games this year.
Go Lady Vols!
Timed_vol (Inactive) writes:
I'll respond to this professionally.
Please back up your statemetns.
Pat has won 8 championships. For 5 of them, she had the best player in the country. For 3, she did not.
The same can be said for many other college teams, male and female. Diana Taurasi certainly had a key role in UConn's run, eh? Just an example.
As for your other comments about Don D. and Bruce...neither of them ran anything that isn't used all over the country. Burce runs a lot of what Dr. Tom taught him.
Not too sure why you care, but I guess you do.
hilltopper writes:
wow butch you are a bitter person and kind of arrogant as well. I am not looking for info from butch but is this team going to be any good I know we are starting over again with talent but the scores in some games have been very close. I have not seen them play so I do not know what is going on with them. How tough is this year going to be and what kind of record do people project
volboy81 writes:
Good game, ladies. Its always great to beat La. Tech! Theyve been a hated rival a long time. Its great to beat them in our last regular season meeting!
rrist#608227 writes:
Ole Butch, how low you have fallen from your glory days as a D1 & a professional as well - now relegated to blogging on a women's basketball website. You are such a Richard Noggin!!! If you cannot say anything constructive, you should go off in the corner & suck your thumb.
hilltopper writes:
butch is a rather pathetic person I feel for someone that is so bitter don't you know the people that have to deal with him/her are miserable please pray for them
Timed_vol (Inactive) writes:
okay, butch, I don't have time for all, but...
I agreee about the innovators. There are few. I don't believe I stated Pat was one of them, so you can back off on that one.
As for taking notes...s0??? Every smart coach learns from someone. When you stop learning, you are lost. Have you stopped learning, Butch??
'tossing her salsd'. you obviously never read what I post, which I can understand with your rather elevated ego. anyway, there are several on here who can vouch that I'm not a CPS koolaid sipper. I respect what she has done, but I also think she screws up, like any other coach.
I am still puzzled: why would you follow/post about something you HaTE?? Kind of seems like stabbing yourself with a penknife over and over.
Congrats on being a D1 player and pro player, assuming you are not making it up. If you are being trutheful, then yes, you are far superior to me in knowledge. Where you lack, is that your delivery comes acroos as a complete jerk. No big deal, you don't give a rat's butt, so what, right??
Well, the world is full of super taletned people who can't communicate. Live with it.
johnlg00 writes:
If you really have all that experience you claim, congratulations. That doesn't however give you a monopoly on basketball knowledge. Competition over who knows more on a forum like this is pointless anyway. As for your judgments on Pat, there are a whole lot of people who have achieved at the highest levels in the game, and not ONLY in her game, who think Pat is one of the all-time greats. I prefer their judgment to yours. Perfect, no; great, yes. Much easier to criticize than to perform and Pat's performance stands up to the best that ever were.
ps11824 writes:
Now see, butch, you can speak in complete sentences. Your last post is a remarkable improvement over any I've read, albeit the content is erroneous. I prefer your 'professional approach' over that senseless dribble. If you choose to continue posting substantial comments, perhaps you will learn more of the real Lady Vols legacy.
"The truth is out there somewhere." — Scully or Muldar, wasn't it?
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