After limping toward the end of the regular season and into the SEC Tournament, two weeks off seemed to give the Tennessee Lady Vols exactly what they needed. Kim Caldwell’s team, a 5-seed ranked No. 20 in both polls, began March Madness by dismantling the South Florida Bulls 101-66 in Columbus, Ohio, Friday night.
Make no mistake, this was an impressive win. USF won three straight to capture the American Athletic Conference tournament championship and, unlike UT, entered the NCAA Tournament red-hot and playing its best basketball. Jose Fernandez’s No. 5 seed team was certainly a trendy pick to pull off this upset.
However, the Tennessee Lady Vols used a dominant second quarter to take control. Up 26-25 after the first 10 minutes, UT methodically extended its lead the next six minutes and was up 45-34 with four minutes to go in the first half. They then went on a 10-0 run to head into the locker room up 55-34.
USF never got closer than 16 points in the second half, and Tennessee eventually extended its lead to over 30 points early in the fourth quarter. Give them credit. Every time USF seemed to threaten, they were able to respond and make sure they stayed in control.
Running Caldwell’s up-tempo system and going two-deep seemed to wear this team down late in the year. They suffered their biggest loss of the year at the Kentucky Wildcats just over three weeks ago and then closed out the regular season the following Sunday with a home loss to the Georgia Bulldogs, who finished next to last in the SEC.
Then, in the league tournament in South Carolina, they lost to the Vanderbilt Commodores, an okay but not great team, on a neutral court in their second game. The Vandy and Georgia losses are what pushed them from a 4-seed to a 5-seed and out of contention to host the first weekend.
As a result of this, there were concerns about Tennessee going into the Big Dance. Caldwell may say these are her players, but some of them clearly aren’t built to play this tempo for a full regular season, which is why her No. 1 ranked recruiting class for next year is such a big deal.
In this game, Talaysia Cooper off the bench was the star with 20 points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks while shooting 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Samara Spencer was 3-of-6 from three and had 15 points, two steals and five assists, and Jewel Spear had 11 points while going 2-of-5 from three.
Also off the bench, Zee Spearman was 3-of-4 from three with 13 points. Collectively, UT shot 16-of-37 from beyond the arc, pushing their total numbers of made threes to 312 on the season, an SEC record. They also forced 24 turnovers and had 12 steals. Alyssa Latham had three of them.
UT improves to 23-9 on the year with the win while USF finishes the season 23-11. Up next for the Tennessee Lady Vols is a matchup with the No. 4 seed Ohio State Buckeyes, who are hosting the first weekend of Tennessee’s bracket at Value City Arena. Ranked No. 15 in the AP Poll and No. 13 in the Coaches Poll, OSU beat the No. 13 Montana State Bobcats 71-51 to open the tourney.
