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Tennessee Lady Vols fall to Alabama: 3 takeaways from horrible home loss

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 21: Tennessee Volunteers fans hold up a cardboard photo of women's basketball coach Pat Summitt during the game against the Connecticut Huskies at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 21, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut 60-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 21: Tennessee Volunteers fans hold up a cardboard photo of women's basketball coach Pat Summitt during the game against the Connecticut Huskies at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 21, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut 60-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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The Tennessee Lady Vols lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide 72-63 Thursday. Here are three takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ embarrassment.

Mercedes Russell’s 1,500th career point was supposed to be a moment of celebration. Instead, the night ended in one of embarrassment for the Tennessee Lady Vols, as they suffered a terrible home loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

There’s something about Tennessee basketball teams seeing their winning streaks come to embarrassing ends against Alabama. Somehow, on the women’s side, this was the Tide’s fourth straight win against UT. And make no mistake, this one was awful.

Alabama is barely a Top 100 RPI team, and they marched right into Knoxville and dominated in the fourth quarter to pull out this win. Kristy Curry’s team moves to 16-10 overall and 6-7 in the league with the victory.

Meanwhile, Holly Warlick’s team falls to 21-5 and 9-4 on the year. They can kiss goodbye any hope at a Top 2 seed now, and at this point, they have no business maybe even being a Top 4 seed.

It was that bad on Thursday. Here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ worst loss of the season.

1. Offensive slumps continue.

The Tennessee Lady Vols entered the fourth quarter with a five-point lead. But then they went six minutes without scoring a single point, allowing the Alabama Crimson Tide to take over. They also managed only nine points in the second quarter. And they missed eight free throws in the game. That allowed Alabama to overcome a 3-of-15 start shooting the ball and take control of the game. The biggest reason for this slump came down to one aspect of the game.

2. This loss is all about the paint. 

The fans’ standing ovation for Mercedes Russell after she achieved the 1,500-point milestone should be retracted after her abysmal performance in this game. Oh sure, she had 11 points and 11 rebounds. But it was against an undersized Alabama team. She shot 4-of-12 in the game, an abysmal number. Meanwhile, Ashley Williams for Alabama, whom Russell has four inches on, managed to dominate in the paint with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting. This loss was all on the terrible inside play of the forwards, who got outhustled and outworked by a small Alabama team.

3. Jaime Nared and Rennia Davis were aggressive on offense.

This is one positive from the game. Jaime Nared found her groove back while Rennia Davis continued hers. The two combined for 40 points on the night. Their defense wasn’t always around, but they did what they could. The other backcourt players, unfortunately for the Tennessee Lady Vols, had an off-night. So they couldn’t overcome everything else. But they were aggressive, and it didn’t even require three-point shooting. So they deserve credit, even in a loss.