BATON ROUGE, La. – Tennessee didn’t make a 3-pointer for the first time in 423 games.
Senior guard Angie Bjorklund didn’t score a point for the first time since the opening game of the 2009 SEC tournament.
And yet the Lady Vols didn’t stumble in, of all places, LSU.
They turned to other players and other means for a 73-65 women’s basketball victory over the Lady Tigers before a crowd of 4,478 at the Maravich Assembly Center.
Center Kelley Cain, who’s playing status was questionable beforehand, matched her career high with 19 points. Forward Glory Johnson came off the bench to score 19 and grab a game-high 15 rebounds.
Collectively, Cain and Johnson shot 17 for 26 from the floor.
Add Kamiko Williams’ 13 points and a 42-31 rebounding advantage and LSU coach Van Chancellor still was suffering from Lady Vol fatigue afterward.
“This might be the deepest team I’ve seen in college basketball in a long time,’’ he said.
LaSondra Barrett’s 15 points led three double-figure scorers for LSU (10-5), but the Lady Tigers couldn’t sustain an early surge and never led after the 7:14 mark of the first half.
The three usual leading scorers for No. 5 Tennessee (13-2) - Simmons, Bjorklund and Shekinna Stricklen - combined for 14 points, about 25 short of their usual output. No matter, the end result still added up in the Lady Vols’ favor.
“I think depth has been very, very good to us,’’ said UT Pat Summitt, who has expanded her intention to rotate primarily seven players. “We know we can keep bodies fresh and rotate them.”
In this case, the day began with getting Cain’s body limber enough to play. Summitt wasn’t sure about the 6-foot-6 redshirt junior’s status because of stiffness in her back and right hip.
“I wasn’t sure either,’’ said Cain, who played 29 minutes. “But coach said she needed me so I went out there and played the best I could.”
While Cain avoided early foul trouble, fellow starters Stricklen, Simmons and Bjorklund did not and were on the bench with two fouls apiece within the first eight minutes. At that point, UT was without three sure scorers on the road against the SEC’s top defensive team. Its depth was more of a necessity than a luxury.
Tennessee was fortunate that Johnson did the work of several players. She hit her first two shots and scored 13 of her points before the break, reviving a team shooting percentage that had dipped below 30 percent.
She also had nine of her rebounds before halftime, giving Tennessee the edge in that crucial statistic, and played a lead role in an aggressive defense that revved the game’s pace more to Tennessee’s liking.
After trailing early 17-10, Tennessee led by as many as 10 points before settling for a 35-29 halftime lead.
Johnson understated her impact by saying, “When anyone hits any shots back-to-back in a row like that, we all gain confidence.”
Cain, on the other hand, was more emphatic.
“Whenever (Johnson) plays at that level, she makes everyone 10 times better,’’ she said.
Tennessee led by as much as 49-35 with 14:16 left before LSU mounted its final charge. With freshman guard Jeanne Kenney shooting holes in UT’s zone defense and scoring all 11 of her points in the second half, the Lady Tigers drew within five points twice. The last time was 59-54 with 5:46 left.
The Lady Vols finished off the victory by finishing 19 for 23 (82.6 percent) at the free throw line. LSU, conversely, was 12 for 22 (54.5 percent).
Summitt did not lament Tennessee’s 0-for-7 shooting from 3-point territory, which ended a string of games with at least one trey that stretched back to Jan. 21, 1999 at Florida. She had her reason.
“It’s OK,’’ she said, “we leave here with a ‘W’ ”
Oregon sends Lady Vols home from…
Cordarrelle Patterson drafted by the…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 47
volfan73120#211815 writes:
Good work Lady Vols. It was good to see Johnson and Cain dominate on the inside.
ACWLY writes:
Another quality win by OUR LADY VOLS, Thank you so much for the effort ALL of you give.
TennVol01 writes:
Like the men, the ladies have lots of talent and athleticism. But unlike the men, the ladies always steps up and plays 100%. If one or two of the talented ladies are not playing well, two or three others step up their game. The men are taking a back seat this year.
SoddyVol writes:
Glory led the team in everything but blocks and got one of those. Glory played like an All-American. A great win at Baton Rouge.
PINK_CHAMPAGNE writes:
I can't praise Glory and kelly enough on this game. They saved the day. Finally, the post players are looking like I knew they could look. Kelly really looks good, and finally looks healthy. What is this, three back to back outings for kelly where she has looked really good. I hope Kelly and Glory's play inspire Brewer and Vicki!
Kamiko provided some much needed points from the perimeter. On a night when the main scorers, Angie, Strick, Spani,Simmons, were having an off night,and in foul trouble, Kamiko stepped up big time for the team.
When the perimeter players struggled, our post stepped up. Kamiko stepped up! That is what it will take to make it to a final four. Every player stepping up. Be ready when called upon. Glory 19 points,15 rebounds! If she can give that every game, it would be wonderful. Kelly 19 points, 8 rebounds. If she can give that every night, it would be wonderful.
Let me give LSU props, they did not quit! Really good test for the lady vols. Really happy Tennessee did not get upset, like LSU upset Ucla!
I am sure Pat will address our perimeter players on their play. All that hand checking, they need to cut that. Especially when they are calling it! They have to adjust to the way the game is being called. No if, ands, or buts about it!
SummittsCourt writes:
Great road win against a solid LSU team that just recently beat a ranked UCLA team. Good way to start the SEC season.
huntined#565710 writes:
I think this game may be what Johnson needed to get her going this year..Easy to see she was the best athlete on the court today.
AHoffman writes:
Great job Vols. And now if the Gentlemen Vols could reach the same level, we would be doing fine.
tonyvick#213307 writes:
That wasn't Dee Canter was it? I know that they are a crew of her protoge's. Terribly called for both teams especially against the Lady Vols. The head ref know it was terribly called because she spent the whole game explaining the bad calls to the players and coaches. Confident officiating does not do that.
Ga_Dave writes:
Great game for the Lady Vols. Glory was magnificent, where has that been? If she plays like that each game, we are unstoppable. Interesting to see our guards were shut down like they were, good that others stepped up. Thanks ESPN3 for showing it. However, one negative - Cronan tweeted to let everyone know her dinner plans and spelled Kelly CAIN's name wrong. Shouldn't the AD know how to spell a star's name? It's not like there are too many names for her to memorize. SHAME on you Joan!!!! GLV
UTVOLSRROCKN writes:
WTG Lady Vols! Great SEC win on the road! Glory and Kelly were unstoppable. Williams had a good game also. Got nothing more to add as Pink already covered everything with her excellent post.
LADY VOLS.....TCB......KOKO......GBO!
dead_vol_foul (Inactive) writes:
Hand-checking is the studidest, STUPIDEST call in the game, I think. I've played tons of ball. Not once has it bothered my 'white men can't jump' efforts to be hand-checked.
It ticks me off that refs call that and then will let posts just get hammered by guards reaching in and slapping their arms/wrists.
Know why elbows get thrown?? Because posts have to protect themselves from the 'reach'. Yet a damn guard can drive the paint, initiate contact, and get the call in her favor. Arggggh...
One more bltch-rant: over-the-back; if you ain't boxing out, then there is NO over-the-back (in my book). I've seen over the back called more this year than any in recent memory, and in virtually every instance, it's more like a 50-50 ball where the better jumper wins...but gets called for the foul even though the 'inside' girl went up and did not box out.
volfan#207874 writes:
I have played the game of basketball, officiated some, and viewed probably thousands in my lifetime and to put it succintly, the officials for this game gave the impression that they were dedicated to fouling out key Vols with their selective foul calls. I hope that the SEC officer who is in charge of officials will take a good look at their effort. Taking nothing away from the LSU players, they played their hearts out, but thanks to our post play and great assists, the Lady Vols prevailed in a hostile environment
(hostile in more ways than one.)
ole3putt writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
bigdisbig writes:
Lady Vols keep getting better and the men keep getting worse. WTF is going on with Pearl's yard dogs?
flatrock writes:
Repeat after me: Give the ball to Kamiko!
ole3putt writes:
Pearl is what's wrong with Pearl's yard dogs. duh
SoddyVol writes:
ole3putt wrote: "....They are all a bunch of drama queens or maybe drag queens."
The refs or the players? When LSU player dives for the ball and ref says was shoved, when a UT guard gets nothing but ball and is called for a foul, its really hard to not react. The only reason number of fouls were anywhere close was LSU trying to catch up towards the end.
PINK_CHAMPAGNE writes:
That handcheck call confuses me! When they blow the whistle, I don't see much of a foul. I can see if the player is really pushing or stopping the progress of the player, but I don't even see that. Usually you will see most players just swat the other players hand away, and continue playing. I really don't see handchecking as a foul,but they are calling it, so I guess teams will have to adjust.
maxvolfan#217855 writes:
Good win for the ladyvols and a great start to a SEC schedule. We hit the boards and got good rebounds along with some good post scoring . Didnt see the game but heard it over the internet. Is Brewer not able to jump yet or is it difficult for her right now to push off that foot? Anyway one game at a time. Van had a good game plan by shutting down Spani and Angie but what this team has is a deep bench and good players that can step up at each position. We have figured it out and i believe our girls will step up when a another is having a off night and score some points. I hope we keep this up. Ive watched other teams and I believe if there star player or top scorer gets shutdown then there is no one else to step up mostly because of a depleted bench or only 2-3 players looking to score . Baylor is deep, Stanford is deep , Tenn is very deep. Another teams...UConn 2-3 scorers and a whole lot of nothing, UK 2 scorers, Xavier 2,Rutgers 2. My point is if we shutdown key players teams will be hard pressed to find someone to step up. Now our team we can have something special if each player plays her role and be the best player on the court when there time comes. Remember folks we still have 7 McDon all americans and we know anyone can have a great game . Look at Spani's 22 or Cain's 19 . Any night it can be Manning, Miko, even Smallbone can knock down 2 or 3 3's so ladies play your best on the court for the team and we will be successful.
itsgolden writes:
i totally agree...enough said!!!
CoachFulmerFan writes:
I really am tired of the horrible officiating. It seems like some of these officials have it in for the lady vols. Same kind of bs officiating happened at Baylor and a few other games. It does concern me that so many of the starters all had off nights. I just think they struggle on the road and that's just how it is. Of course, the poor officiating kept the vols from getting into any real good offensive flow. I was impressed with the free throw shooting, which was really key in winning the game. Cain keeps getting better and better but she seemed to be favoring her hip as the game progressed. I was surprised that Baugh didn't play, maybe her knee was bothering her??
kazoo writes:
Please: I have played a ton of basketball--and it's stupid to say that the hand-check call is stupid. It depends on the type of hand-check the defender has made. There are soft hand checks--when a defender is basically reaching out and touching the offensive player--and there are hard hand checks, when the defensive player is pushing the offensive player enough to interfere with his movement and progress. And it's the officials job to judge whether a check is hard or soft. There are a lot of hard hand-checks, and they should be called. Soft ones shouldn't be called.
CoachFulmerFan writes:
Are you a UCONN fan? Come on, every time I watch UCONN play they continually maul the other teams players. They rarely get called for it. There needs to be more consistency with the way refs call a game. It is no wonder UCONN can play such a swarming defense, the get away with so much. Meanwhile, the lady vols simply put their hands up and they get called every time..
ladyvolsfan1 writes:
Great post! Couldn't agree with you more.
bmaples writes:
Congrats to the Lady Vols for a critical win in a tough gym! And most especially -- glad to see Glory getting a double-double!! We need her and the others to be aggressive when they're in there and play like the All-Americans they can be. Having weapon after weapon is a great thing -- deep benches can be a killer come March!
Depth, defense, and rebounding -- sounds like Lady Vol basketball!
Bruce in Louisville
SoddyVol writes:
CoachFulmerFan, you are absolutely correct about inconsistency in calls refs make. Also with Cain, sometimes she does get a body into a shooter but I've seen many times she is just straight up, no body contact, just the ball and gets called for the foul. Its like the ref anticipates without actually seeing a foul. A ref with one of the best abilities but makes terrible calls against UT is Dee K. We need more with her ability but without the prejudice.
orangecountyvols writes:
Poor 'Ole3putt'
Don't be 'puttering' around here like most trolls do.
Best for you is to get off on the putting green and see if you can sink a 1 foot putt for a change.
In the meantime, stop whining about something over which you have no control.............Lady Vols basketball.
Could you be 'Mike" with another screen name? So sad, the life of a troll................
dead_vol_foul (Inactive) writes:
kazoo, that's just bull.
a 'hard' hand check actually puts the defender at a disadvantage, because they are off-balance.
IMO, the only time to call it is when you literally push a player off-stride or cause her to travel...and they DON'T call it then!!!
I tell ya, though, when I was watching UConn-Stanford, the posts for both were simply getting mugged on every rebound. It was pathetic.
xvolx writes:
This looked like the team that played Louisville. LSU was overmatched and should have lost this game by 30. Bj, Simmons, Spani and Strickland never showed up for this game. Only players I saw playing hard were Cain, Johnson and Manning. They don't all show up to play every game. This will surely catch up with them. Someone has been messing with Simmons head. She played confused.
PINK_CHAMPAGNE writes:
You pretty much said the same thing I said! Notice I said if the player is really pushing or stopping the progress of the player. Of course you call that. But I did not see that tonight, but I really can't tell because I was not at the game. It just does not look like much to me,from the tv set, for the official to blow the whistle. I hope you don't think I was trying to make an excuse about the calls, because they were called on both teams. All it did was slow the progress of the game, and made if frustrating to watch. I hate the call, unless, like I said, and you repeated, the handcheck is stopping the progress of the player, or the player is pushing.
richvol writes:
Agree completely...It certainly looks to me that every official has it in for Cain. I can't count the number of times that she goes straight up,doesn't lean in and never touches anything but ball yet gets called repeatedly for phantom fouls. It's ridiculous. Maybe she gets into trouble with the Refs with her mouth because she always laughs and is mouthing something after the call. Additionally,she gets hacked to pieces on her arms every time she touches the ball and they don't call anything a lot of the time.
Great win...tremendous job by Glory. Borklund is still dribbling too much. When she starts I wait for her to loose it or make a bad pass. Catch and shoot...catch and shoot.
usnavyvolfaninva_still_getting_paid writes:
Get a life.
usnavyvolfaninva_still_getting_paid writes:
Thank you, KNS.
wigmeister writes:
I wonder if our men could even beat our women with their blase' attitude.
volboy81 writes:
if Johnson & Cain will give that kind of effort every game, we'll win it all this year!
GO LADY VOLS!!
volboy81 writes:
Ive almost given up on wishing the refs in the womens game would improve. Obviously its not going to happen. Those 2 yesterday, Bryan Enterline and Lisa Mattingly are the 2 worst officials in the history of organized sports. Neither has a clue what a foul, walk, charge or anything else is. They both need to be banned from basketball! Officials have said that they feel like theyve done a good job if no one really notices them during the game...well, Bryan and Lisa....youre ALWAYS noticed! Go get a job youre good at!!!
volfan#207874 writes:
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
johnlg00 writes:
Good post. I could only listen to the game over the LV website, but it seemed that Kelley and Glory REALLY came to play! The whole team showed remarkable poise to win with its main scorers struggling, on the road, against a quality opponent. Even when LSU started draining the three's late, the LVs never folded and hit enough free-throws at the end to win fairly comfortably. The LVs really seem to have hit their stride since the Baylor game. Now if the posts can only stay as healthy and productive as they have been recently, the sky is the limit for this team.
johnlg00 writes:
I wasn't able to watch the game, I only listened to it, so I can't comment on the hand-checking fouls in this game, though I take it as given that officiating in the women's game generally sucks. However, I think the decision to call hand-checking closely is to reduce the necessity of the officials to judge whether a player is actually impeding the offensive player rather than merely "tagging" her. It is simpler to just call ANY contact with a hand as a foul, since any player will try to get away with as much as she can, and the line between checking and tagging can be very fine as a closely-contested game goes on. I'm not saying I agree with it necessarily, just trying to understand why it is being called this way.
dead_vol_foul (Inactive) writes:
would be about 100-0 in the first half. Don't even go there.
dead_vol_foul (Inactive) writes:
Refs at all levels of the women's game suck when reffing the bigs. I'm biased, I'll admit. Here are my peeves:
-blocked shots, all ball, on smaller players. Always a foul.
-posts pull rebounds, other team crowds in to swat and hack. Post either gets called for elbows, travel, or a jump ball.
-charge/block: a post can be set, and the offensive player has a full step to stop or change, yet on contact it's the post's foul.
-over-the-back: no boxout, no foul.
-post drives, guard undercuts: charge
-you fart in an area around a guard shooting, and it's a foul ( :) ). Hack a post, who cares??
Post need to NEVER REACH, and rarely try to block a shot that hasn't left the hand. IMHO, not enough posts become refs. Refs are typically short, have been guards.
adimatteo#261830 writes:
Great job, thanks to all of you for all the work and commitment.
Big win over a very good LSU team.
Congrats again, you work hard, deserve it all
ps11824 writes:
johnlg, you are as scarce as hen's teeth anymore. Good to hear from you. I agree with your observation about the stripes calling ANY contact out high simply to avoid the bother of close vs barely. Personally I think they should allow as much contact just this side of mauling as to keep the game flowing and interesting for the fans. The players will adjust out high if they are allowed to play. It's down low they should cut down on the mauling, smacking and slinging bodies and body parts. To heck with the touch fouls down there. If the player can't woman-up in there, let her knock down a two or three ball on the perimeter or send the good pass in to the big girl where she can handle it. This is not baby girl ball. The dadburn stripes need to STOP trying to be the focal point in these games because we don't give a rat's patoot about a show-offofficial, and it's just plain boring when they disrupt the flow of the game with their dadburn whistles, especially when there's no blood...
Over-officiated basketball games remind me of olympic curling, where they use their little brooms and daintily sweep away a clear path for the stone to travel, careful not to touch the thing. This game should only be played at the senior citizen center.
Back in the 80s-early 90s one of the best NCAA officials on the women's side showed up quite frequently in Lady Vols contests. I won't call her name, she may be a poster. I was always pleased when I read her name on the program because I knew she was as fair as they came. She made the statement: "an official should never be noticed on the court." Amen to that.
dead_vol_foul (Inactive) writes:
98, most rec games where you call your own fouls are better-called. Interestingly, though, you always have the guy who is constantly begging for calls.
r2d2 writes:
I think that Simmons is learning to play point guard at the college level. She will be OK once this learning period is over.
itsgolden writes:
i wonder if there are any changes to the line-up coming this week? when kamiko had one bad game, CPS yanked her. looks like the team needs kamiko when the opposing teams bring defensive pressure because bjorklund and spani have trouble getting shots off and can't create. as i recall this happened at louisville. seems like all road games are a challenge for this team. this game wasn't pretty, but a win is a win. with the exception of the post play, there wasn't much else. i believe CPS knows who should be on the floor, but will only put them out there as a last resort. if i know already that great defensive teams shut down bjorklund and spani, CPS has to know it too. ever wonder why Alberta Auguste only got significant minutes during tournament time in the 08 championship run? the defense shutdown bjorklund and CPS didn't want an early exit. i predict we will see something similar this year.
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