In an amazing defensive effort, the Tennessee Lady Vols destroyed the Ole Miss Rebels. Here are three takeaways from the women’s basketball Volunteers’ win.
Talk about a bounce back! After a tough loss to the Kentucky Wildcats on the road earlier this week, the No. 23/24 ranked Tennessee Lady Vols had a historically dominant win over the Ole Miss Rebels Thursday night on the road.
UT jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never trailed in the game. They only allowed Ole Miss to surpass double-figures in one quarter, the third. Simply put, it was total domination by them across the board in Oxford.
With the win, Kellie Harper’s team improved to 12-3 overall and 2-1 in the SEC, and Ole Miss fell to 7-9 overall and 0-3 in the league. Coming up next for Rocky Top is a return home to face the Georgia Bulldogs. Here are three things we learned from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ dominant win.
1. Defense and rebounding speaks for itself.
For the first time since 2015, the Tennessee Lady Vols held an SEC team to under 30 points. Ole Miss shot 10-of-54. UT only forced 16 turnovers, which isn’t a lot when you play defense like this. They just denied everything in their defensive sets, and that was impressive. Meanwhile, they outrebounded the Rebels 56-23 and had 18 offensive rebounds. What more can we say?
2. Freshmen are settling into their roles.
Rennia Davis still led the way with 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists. But freshmen helped out in this one. Tamari Key had 10 rebounds, settling into her role at center. Jessie Rennie is becoming the three-point specialist she was recruited to be, hitting three of three for 11 points. Meanwhile, Jordan Horston dropped 11 points and seven assists, which leads to our final point.
3. Point guard play is getting better but still needs wrk.
Jazmine Massengill was tasked with replacing Zaay Green initially. In this game, she was solid, with five assists and only one turnover despite only two points. We mentioned Jordan Horston’s 11 points and seven assists. Together, they handled point guard duties admirably. However, Horston still had six turnovers, so she still has some work to do to settle into the role.