Kim Caldwell keeps shattering recent barriers that have faced the Tennessee Lady Vols. Earlier this year, she beat the UConn Huskies, UT’s first win in the series since 2008. Now, she’s got them back in the Sweet 16 after missing it last year with their highest-seeded win in the NCAA Tournament since 2016, when they reached the Elite Eight.
UT, a 5-seed ranked No. 20 in both polls, beat the No. 4 seed Ohio State Buckeyes, ranked No. 15 in the AP Poll and No. 13 in the Coaches Poll, in Columbus Sunday night 82-67. Ironically, the last time they beat a top four seed in the Big Dance was against No. 3 seed OSU in 2016.
This is the third time in four games the Tennessee Lady Vols have had Talaysia Cooper, who led the team in scoring with 19 points in this game, coming off the bench. Those three times also involves UT’s three wins in the past four games, as they opened March Madness with a 101-66 win over the USF Bulls.
Before the tourney, UT beat the Texas A&M Aggies in the SEC Tournament but then lost to the Vanderbilt Commodores when they put Cooper back in the starting lineup. Clearly, this new method is working, and it actually explains away this team’s limp toward the end of the regular season.
Remember, after going on a roll for a while, Tennessee got blown out by the Kentucky Wildcats and lost at home to the Georgia Bulldogs, the second worst team in the league, to close out the regular season and cost itself a chance to play the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament at home. At the time, we though they were tired.
While that still is certainly the case, what became clear after the SEC Tourney was that they didn’t have the scoring punch necessary with their second team. Since Caldwell subs everybody out at once and alternates each group of five on the court, she needed more playmaking with her second team. That’s where moving Cooper there became effective.
In addition to her scoring, Cooper had an insane seven steals. She also had five assists and eight rebounds. Among the starters, Ruby Whitehorn had 14 points and three steals, and Samara Spencer had 10 points. UT’s tempo was too much for Ohio State, as they forced 23 turnovers and had 15 steals.
After blowing a 14-point lead in the third quarter, the Tennessee Lady Vols regrouped to take control and go up 66-61 heading into the fourth, and they methodically pulled away with defense by that point to win by 15. They went on multiple runs throughout the game to pull out the win.
OSU led 21-17 after the first quarter, but UT went on a 12-1 run in the second quarter to take a 32-26 lead. Up 40-35 at halftime, the then went on a 14-0 run early in the third quarter to build a 51-37 lead before blowing it and allowing OSU to go on a 20-6 run. That’s when they regrouped.
Up next for the Tennessee Lady Vols will be a matchup against the winner between the No. 1 seed Texas Longhorns and No. 8 seed Illinois Fighting Illini, who face off Monday. They improve to 24-9 on the year while OSU finishes the season with a 26-7 record.
