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Tennessee Lady Vols hold off Arkansas Razorbacks: 3 takeaways from 90-85 win

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 24: Tennessee Volunteers students celebrate after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 24, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Kentucky 82-80. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 24: Tennessee Volunteers students celebrate after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 24, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Kentucky 82-80. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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The Tennessee Lady Vols defeated the Hogs 90-85 in Fayetteville Thursday. Here are three takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ victory.

They just don’t like to make anything easy. The Tennessee Lady Vols nearly collapsed at the end against the Arkansas Razorbacks but held on for a road win 90-85. The victory extended Holly Warlick’s team’s winning streak to three games. But once again, it was ugly.

Tennessee took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter but immediately let Arkansas back in the game. The Hogs tied it at 67 three minutes into that final quarter, and it went back and forth until the end.

However, Tennessee never let Arkansas get in control. So they held on for an ugly win against a team that entered the game barely inside the Top 100 of the RPI.

With the win, UT improves to 20-4 on the season and 8-3 in the SEC overall. Arkansas falls to .500 at 12-12 and 3-8 in the SEC overall. Tennessee plays the Georgia Bulldogs next, which is going to be brutal.

They’ll obviously have to play better then, but let’s first analyze this game. Here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ win over Georgia.

1. The guards came back to life on offense!

After struggling significantly for what seems like a month now, the Tennessee Lady Vols finally found that guard play they had been looking for. And it didn’t even come from Evina Westbrook. Meme Jackson and Rennia Davis went off scoring the ball. Jackson had 21 points, going 7-of-10 from the field and 5-of-7 from the three-point line.

But Rennia Davis was the star. Davis had an amazing 33 points and 14 rebounds. She took over this game along with Jackson, and together they were able to make up for another night of lackadaisical aggression from Mercedes Russell. Jaime Nared at least helped out with 16 points, and Westbrook did add five assists. But the scoring of Jackson and Davis was the real story.

2. Defense was atrocious! 

The Arkansas Razorbacks had not broken 80 all year in SEC play. In fact, they had four-game stretch just recently when they failed to break 50. So how the heck did the Tennessee Lady Vols give up 85 to this team?

Well, while the guards came back to life on offense, defense was a totally different story. The Hogs shot 47.8 percent from three and hit 11 treys. They were red-hot and unguardable all night, and at the same time Tennessee only forced 10 turnovers. That spells lack of aggression, which was a big issue. But speaking of turnovers…

3. Taking care of the basketball once again became an issue. 

The Tennessee Lady Vols are run by freshmen and one sophomore in the backcourt, so it’s forgivable to a degree. But after improving over the past few weeks in this category, they resorted to their old selves on turnovers.

Tennessee turned the ball over 19 times, which is why Arkansas was able to go on so many runs. They were also able to hit a lot of three-pointers in transition, and that’s what helped lead to the 85 points. Arkansas’s aggression caught Tennessee and Holly Warlick off-guard again, and that can’t happen. It’s exactly how the Notre Dame Fighting Irish got red-hot against them. If Tennessee is to return to an elite level team, they have to handle tempo better. In this game, it was a disaster, but at least they got the win.