All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee Lady Vols: Three takeaways from 79-41 win vs. Colorado State

By Caleb Calhoun

ATLANTA, GA - MARCH 14: A general view of megaphones for the Tennessee Volunteers cheerleaders against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the quarterfinals of the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament at Georgia Dome on March 14, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - MARCH 14: A general view of megaphones for the Tennessee Volunteers cheerleaders against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the quarterfinals of the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament at Georgia Dome on March 14, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Tennessee Lady Vols came back from Sunday’s loss to beat the Colorado State Rams. Here’s what we learned from the women’s basketball Volunteers victory.

After losing their first game on Sunday to the Texas Longhorns, the Tennessee Lady Vols bounced back on Wednesday to dominate the Colorado State Rams. Kellie Harper’s team came away with a 79-41 victory to close out their six-game home stand.

UT never trailed in this game and built a 15-10 first quarter lead before expanding it to 36-18 at halftime. With the win, the Lady Vols, who are ranked No. 23 in the AP Poll and No. 24 in the Coaches Poll, improved to 8-1 overall. Meanwhile, the Rams fell to 5-6 overall and suffered their third straight loss.

Rocky Top now has a week off before they head out west for a two-game road trip, first against the Stanford Cardinal on Wednesday, Dec. 18 and then against the Portland State Vikings on Saturday, Dec. 21. Here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ win.

1. Defense and rebounding…again.

We say it every game, but it’s impossible to ignore. The Tennessee Lady Vols out-rebounded Colorado State 57-24 and had 14 rebounds from Jordan Horston, a point guard, along with 11 rebounds from Rennia Davis. They also held CSU to 21.2 percent shooting from the field, and they held them to under 50 points while only forcing seven turnovers. That’s called dominance.

2. Scoring came from everywhere.

It was a bounce-back game for Horston. In addition to her rebounding, she had 10 points. Davis had 23, continuing to dominate. Tamari Key did it inside with 11 points, and Jazmine Massengill dropped 16. Nine different players scored, and 11 players saw action in the game overall, showing that Harper is refusing to back away from her commitment to go deep into the roster.

3. Turnovers still need to come down.

To be fair, they only had 14 turnovers in their loss to the Texas Longhorns. But they had 17 in this game, and they continue to lose the turnover margins in matchups. That’s a critical factor going forward. UT either needs to get its turnovers to within 10 or find a way to start forcing more. Horston herself, despite her success, had four, and Massengill had three. That has to improve.