Three Tennessee Lady Vols Earn All-SEC Honors

Three Tennessee Lady Vols earned All-Southeastern Conference honors. The Volunteers were juniors Diamond DeShields, Jaime Nared, and Mercedes Russell.

With the NCAA women’s basketball regular season over, three Tennessee Lady Vols received postseason recognition in the conference.

Junior guards Jaime Nared and Diamond DeShields and junior forward Mercedes Russell all earned All-SEC honors, according to a news release from SEC Sports Tuesday.

DeShields was the only one of the three to finish First-Team All-SEC. And she earned it after finishing the year averaging 17.3 points per game, six and a half rebounds per game, and almost exactly four assists per game.

She was also very efficient. DeShields shot 42.8 percent from the field, 33.8 percent from the three-point line. From the free throw line, she shot 79.8 percent.

Russell and Nared both made Second-Team All-SEC.

As the go-to player inside, Russell took huge strides this year. She averaged 16.3 points and nine and a half rebounds per game.

Her averages came on 57 percent shooting.

Meanwhile, Nared became a breakout star midway through the SEC season. She finished the year averaging 15.6 points per game to go with six and a half rebounds.

That all came on a 42.4 field goal percentage, a 37.8 three-point percentage, and an 88.4 free throw percentage.

There were 17 players overall to earn All-SEC honors, with eight making First-Team All-SEC.

A’ja Wilson of the South Carolina Gamecocks, not surprisingly, was SEC Player of the Year.

The best news for the Tennessee Lady Vols, though, is that all three players here come back next year, and they join the No. 1 ranked recruiting class that Warlick has brought in.

Add in the return of Te’a Cooper from injury, and this team could return to its old self next year with a chance to make a huge run.

But who knows? Maybe they’ll make a major run this year.