Work in offseason has Lady Vols shooting straight

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Tennessee's Kamiko Williams shoots over MTSU's Alysha Clark on Wednesday night in the Lady Vols' 69-52 road win.

MURFREESBORO - Tennessee's Glory Johnson made 10 of 15 shots against Middle Tennessee State Wednesday night and her overall shooting percentage actually dropped.

Go figure.

Johnson and the Lady Vols are setting some high standards for themselves. The most obvious trappings of their early women's basketball success are a 4-0 record and a No. 6 national ranking.

It's hard to overlook their 46.6 percent shooting accuracy from the floor as well. The Lady Vols shot a season-best 54.5 percent in beating the Blue Raiders 69-52 before a sellout crowd of 11,802 at the Murphy Center.

Tennessee hit nine of its first 12 shots and its accuracy never dipped below 60 percent in the first half.

The overall marksmanship is a nice improvement from the program-worst 41.3 percent of last year. To date, the Lady Vols' season is validating the investment they made in their offseason.

"It's no secret,'' UT coach Pat Summitt said. "If you're not working on your skills, don't expect them to improve."

Johnson started by making her first four shots - everything from a 17-foot jumper to a close-range shot. She came into the game shooting a blistering 68.2 percent and now is at 67.6 percent (25 for 37).

"I think I got to show a lot of what on worked on over the summer,'' said the 6-foot-3 sophomore forward, who scored a career-high 21 points against MTSU. "I kind of surprised myself with how consistent my shots were."

Guard Angie Bjorklund shot 7 for 15 in scoring 16 points. She upped her accuracy to 46.3 percent for the season.

Fellow guard Shekinna Stricklen wasn't feeling well and still knocked down 4 of 11 attempts in scoring 12 points.

"Last year was a tough lesson for us to all live through,'' Summitt said, "but it was probably the best thing to happen to us because (the players) took ownership."

MTSU (2-2) couldn't keep pace, not with leading scorer Alysha Clark scoring just three first-half points. Kelley Cain, Tennessee's 6-6 center, was a towering defensive presence against the 5-10 Clark, who was averaging 28.7 points per game. Her first basket came with 2:53 left in the first half.

Although Clark scored 20 of her game-high 23 points in the second half, MTSU never drew closer than 10 points after the break and trailed by as many as 20 with 3:30 left.

Tennessee comes home for Saturday's game (TV: SportSouth, 3 p.m.) against UCLA having swept three consecutive games away from Knoxville. In beating Texas Tech in San Antonio along with Virginia and MTSU on their home floors, Tennessee played the role of front-runner, trailing for a grand total of 6 minutes, 14 seconds.

"I think the biggest thing that's been preached to us is we have to stick together, we have to be our support,'' freshman Taber Spani said. "We realize we have to be our energy."

Wednesday's game was UT's first visit to Murfreesboro in 30 years. Given the crowd and the atmosphere, MTSU coach Rick Insell would love for Tennessee to return - the sooner the better.

"Why fly all over the country when you can go three hours down the road?'' he said.

Summitt isn't against the idea but said the Lady Vols schedule doesn't have any openings for the next three to four years.

"Right now I don't know how far out we've scheduled, but we're not on the schedule to play here,'' she said. "I'm not saying we wouldn't come back. I just have to look at it."

On The Air: Because of Saturday's football game, the radio broadcast of the UCLA game will be carried on FM 98.7.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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