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Tennessee Lady Vols Rebound With 77-66 Win vs Missouri Tigers: Three Takeaways

By Caleb Calhoun

Mar 6, 2015; North Little Rock, AR, USA; Tennessee Lady Volunteers head coach Holly Warlick looks on in the second half against the Georgia Lady Bulldogs during the second round of the SEC Women's Tournament at Verizon Arena. The Lady Volunteers won 75-41. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 6, 2015; North Little Rock, AR, USA; Tennessee Lady Volunteers head coach Holly Warlick looks on in the second half against the Georgia Lady Bulldogs during the second round of the SEC Women's Tournament at Verizon Arena. The Lady Volunteers won 75-41. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Tennessee Lady Vols came away with a win against the Missouri Tigers at home. Here are three takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ victory.

Most Tennessee Lady Vols fans are probably feeling sick about the fact that they aren’t on a six-game winning streak right now. After Thursday’s win over the Missouri Tigers, this team is on a roll having won five of six with their only loss a fluke one in double-overtime on the road against the Georgia Bulldogs.

Tennessee put together a strong finish in this one after going into halftime down 35-30.

They turned it on in the second half, tying the game up at 54 going into the fourth quarter and then outscoring the Tigers 23-12 in the fourth.

With the win, Tennessee moves to 16-8 overall and 7-4 in the SEC while Missouri falls to 16-9 and 6-5. The Lady Vols are also now tied with the Kentucky Wildcats for fourth place in the SEC standings.

Here are three takeaways from their win.

1. Three-point shooting cut out Missouri’s zone defense.

Holly Warlick’s team was a bit lucky tonight. Missouri went to a zone against the Tennessee Lady Vols to try to keep them from dominating in the paint. As a result, they shot a lot more from three than usual.

In this game, they went 9-of-17 from beyond the arc, which was a huge difference. It resulted in four starters scoring in double-figures, canceled out Missouri’s zone and forced them to switch up the defense, which is when they could drive and go inside to Mercedes Russell. But one player made all this happen, and that’s our next takeaway.

2. Diamond DeShields might be the best player in basketball.

Seriously. As inconsistent as the Tennessee Lady Vols are, Diamond DeShields has never been the problem. Her versatility is what beat Missouri’s complex defense in every way. She was 4-of-6 from the three-point line and 8-of-12 overall to finish the game with 22 points.

But she was also able to get people involved and to the other things. As a guard, she was the toughest player out there, finishing with six rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block. Seriously, she was amazing. And she helped the Lady Vols do a huge thing in this game.

3. The Tennessee Lady Vols played consistent for a full 40 minutes.

This was the story of the day. Holly Warlick’s team only had one bad quarter, the second quarter, when Missouri outscored them by eight. But that can happen against the Tigers’ defense at times. Still, Tennessee did not let things get out of hand, and they weren’t Jekyll and Hyde from quarter to quarter or even minute to minute.

That was even a problem when they beat the South Caroline Gamecocks. In this game, however, they had one rough quarter, but it wasn’t terrible enough to knock them out. Then they had three very good quarters to take control of the game. This was a consistent game for a full 40 minutes, mainly because their shots were falling, but also because they made smart passes. Consider the fact that while Russell and DeShields hit double figures, so did Jaime Nared and Jordan Reynolds with 18 and 12 points respectively. And Reynolds added eight assists, which was huge.