Tennessee Lady Vols destroy Arkansas-Pine Bluff 92-51: Three takeaways

The Tennessee Lady Vols moved to 6-0 by beating the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions. Here’s what we learned from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ win.

In their first game as a ranked team in both polls, the Tennessee Lady Vols were dominant. They managed to blow out the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions with a 92-51 victory to improve to 6-0 on the year, one week after their 73-46 win over the Stetson Hatters to move to 5-0.

This was also the third game in a six-game home stand for Kellie Harper’s program. UT dominated from the start, jumping out to 9-0 and then 16-1 lead and finishing the first quarter ahead 26-7. They never looked back the rest of the way, leading 46-7 at one point in the first half and going into halftime up 48-11.

Up next for Rocky Top is a home game Sunday against the Air Force Falcons. The they face the Texas Longhorns a week later before hosting the Colorado State Rams the Wednesday after that to close out their home stand. Before looking ahead to that, here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ victory.

Inside game dominated.

How in the world could the Tennessee Lady Vols score 92 points and hit no three-pointers? Seriously, that has to be some kind of record, as they went 0-for-10 from beyond the arc. Well, going to the free throw line 30 times help. But the key was attacking the paint a lot.

Tamari Key, Rennia Davis, Rae Burrell, Kasiyahna Kushkituah, Kamera Harris, Jaiden McCoy and Emily Saunders combined for 79 of the team’s 92 points. Davis and Burrell led the way with 17 each, and Kushkituah had 15. But they all dominated by going into the paint, and Kellie Harper continued to employ a lot of depth in the process.

First-half defense was amazing.

It’s hard to argue with holding a team to 11 points in a half. UT also managed to hold the Golden Lions to seven points in the first quarter, and they didn’t score at all in the second quarter until the final minute.

By the way, Arkansas-Pine Bluff wasn’t horrible shooting the ball, as they hit six of 19 three-point attempts. But they were awful everywhere else. UT held them to 28.8 percent shooting overall, and they forced 21 turnovers. That’s how they held them to 51 points.

Perimeter offense still has some work to do.

Shooting 0-for-10 from three is one thing. On top of that, though, Kellie Harper’s team had 19 turnovers on the night. Jordan Horston looked like a freshman for once with eight turnovers and only six points.

This all needs to improve. Now, the team did have 25 assists, but that had to do with the scoring in the paint. And the perimeter defense was fine, evidenced by 12 steals. Atrocious outside shooting and numerous turnovers has to improve, though.