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Tennessee Lady Vols choke at home vs. South Carolina: 3 takeaways

By Caleb Calhoun

CLEVELAND - APRIL 01: Fans of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers support their tema against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their National Semifinal game of the 2007 NCAA Women's Final Four at the Quicken Loans Arena on April 1, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. Tennessee won 56-50. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND - APRIL 01: Fans of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers support their tema against the North Carolina Tar Heels during their National Semifinal game of the 2007 NCAA Women's Final Four at the Quicken Loans Arena on April 1, 2007 in Cleveland, Ohio. Tennessee won 56-50. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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The Tennessee Lady Vols fell 82-67 to the South Carolina Gamecocks Sunday afternoon. Here are three takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ loss.

Coming off a loss to the Texas A&M Aggies Thursday, the Tennessee Lady Vols messed up their final chance at a regular season quality win on Sunday with a bad home loss. The No. 13 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks, who had just lost to the Kentucky Wildcats and were playing without former Lady Vols Te’a Cooper, dominated in Knoxville for an 82-67 win.

With the loss, UT falls to 17-10 and 6-8 in the SEC. They have two games left against two of the three worst teams in the SEC, the Vanderbilt Commodores and Ole Miss Rebels. Meanwhile, South Carolina improved to 20-7 and 12-2 in the SEC.

At this point, Holly Warlick’s team will need the SEC Tournament to have a chance at the NCAA Tournament. They need at least two quality wins there, or everything will collapse. Here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ loss.

1. The big run was early this time. 

We’ve been stressing this all year, and in their biggest moment, it got them again. The Tennessee Lady Vols just went silent for a quarter, and this time it was in the first quarter. South Carolina outscored them 27-11, and they were completely dominated. On defense, they were completely useless, and it allowed the Gamecocks to build a 20-point lead in the second quarter. Now, UT did come back and make it interesting in the third, but they spent too much energy doing it and couldn’t finish the job. So, once again, a horrible run cost them.

2. The turnover disparity was too much.

South Carolina had only 6 turnovers all day. They forced 16 and had nine steals. That was the difference. Tennessee’s offense was out of sync for huge parts of the game, but it wasn’t horrendous all day. It was just bad enough, while it struggled to make plays just enough defensively to allow for this disparity. In fact, throw in assists, and it’s clear which side had better ball movement. The Gamecocks had 17 assists and 6 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Lady Vols had 8 assists and 16 turnovers. That’s all you need to know about this game.

3. Tennessee is too scared to shoot the ball.

The timidness in this game was real. After struggling to find consistency beyond the arc, a team loaded with elite recruiters noted for their ability to shoot attempted three 3-point attempts all night. They made one. I’m not making that up. Meme Jackson never got right, and she only took one. Evina Westbrook, Zaay Green, Cheridene Green, and Rennia Davis all had double-figures. But only Davis hit a three-pointer, and she only took one. By the way, the lack of aggression around the perimeter contributed to the turnovers. Maybe if they weren’t afraid to pull the trigger, they would have been in more games this year. This weak mentality has cost them all season, and Holly Warlick deserves some blame for that as well, among many other things.