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Tennessee Lady Vols dominate Florida: 3 takeaways from blowout win

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 destroyed the Gators Thursday night 70-42. Here are three takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ victory.

Well at least they’re still dominating the bad teams. After two losses last week, the Tennessee Lady Vols got back on track with an insane blowout road win over the Florida Gators.

Holly Warlick’s team used an unprecedented 24-2 third quarter run to take complete control of what was a relatively close game at halftime en route to a 70-42 victory. With the win, Tennessee improved to 22-6 and 10-5 in the conference.

As a result, they are still in the hunt for a double-bye in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But they’ll likely need to win on Sunday against the South Carolina Gamecocks and then get some help even after that.

Still, at least they didn’t lose another bad one. This win keeps them in solid shape for a No. 3 seed, and now they can just focus on scoring major quality wins down the stretch with one game left in the regular season. Here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ win.

1. The freshmen have returned.

After struggling with inconsistency for a while, the Tennessee Lady Vols freshmen were crucial to this win. Anastasia Hayes, Rennia Davis and Evina Westbrook all scored in double-figures in this one. Davis added 10 rebounds for a double-double. On top of that, those three guards combined for only three turnovers, so the return of the freshmen meant the return of the guards. Warlick could still use more consistency from them, but they deserve credit for playing well in this one.

2. Defense was amazing.

This is part of the great play of the Tennessee Lady Vols’ guards. They dominated on the perimeter, with the same three freshmen combining for eight steals. Meme Jackson added three to make for 11 steals overall just by the guards. They had 17 overall and forced 15 turnovers. On top of that, Florida shot 11 percent from three and 36.7 percent overall. This explains why they were held to just 42 points. Holding them to two points in a quarter was beyond amazing.

3. Mercedes Russell is still not looking great.

Her performances have been troubling as of recent, and despite this being a blowout, we can’t ignore Mercedes Russell scoring only six points and shooting 3-of-8 from the field. Tennessee needs its star senior to dominate down low in a Shaq-like manner if it’s going to make any postseason run. She didn’t do that in this game, and it’s one bit of criticism.