Kim Caldwell isn’t making any excuses for the Tennessee Lady Vols, and you shouldn’t either. Sure, they have far exceeded expectations. Yes, their only two losses on the year came down to the last shot and are to top 10 teams by a total of three points. Obviously, they will get better when Caldwell’s recruits arrive.
Still, the LSU Tigers’ fluke last-second shot to beat UT 89-87 Thursday came down to effort.
LSU shot 1-of-8 from three while the Tennessee Lady Vols were 11-of-31. The game was in Knoxville. Why, then, did Tennessee lose? They didn’t dominate on the boards, and they refused to create easy buckets inside out of their half-court sets.
In their second straight loss, UT, ranked No. 18 in the AP Poll and No. 15 in the Coaches Poll, was outrebounded 46-38 and 16-15 on the offensive glass. LSU, ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll and No. 4 in the Coaches Poll, certainly has good size and is at their apex under Kim Mulkey.
However, size and athleticism are the two areas Tennessee isn’t lacking in Caldwell’s first year. Consistent shooting is supposed to be the issue, so if they’re hitting their threes, as they were at home in this one, they should be able to have the edge, and they didn’t. That’s due to effort.
Tennessee is more athletic than LSU, so there is no excuse for them to not win the rebounding battle. Caldwell did not shy away from that either, bringing up the point here that players have to want to rebound. She knows what happened.
Jewel Spear was once again the star for the Tennessee Lady Vols, coming away with 25 points and going 5-of-7 from three. Talaysia Cooper added 24 points, and Ruby Whitehorn and Samara Spencer each had 10 points. Whitehorn and Cooper also each had five assists, although Cooper had five turnovers.
With the loss, UT falls to 13-2 overall and 1-2 in the SEC. They will visit the Arkansas Razorbacks Sunday. LSU improves to 18-0 and 3-0 in SEC play with a visit from the Vanderbilt Commodores set for next Monday.
