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Tennessee Lady Vols lose 83-75 at Arkansas: Three takeaways

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) /
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For the fifth straight time, the Tennessee Lady Vols lost. Here are three things we learned from the Razorbacks beating the women’s basketball Volunteers.

They came up short in all five tests. The Tennessee Lady Vols fell on the road to the No. 22/25 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks Thursday night 83-75, suffering their fifth straight loss, all against quality opponents either in the top 25 of the AP Poll, the RPI or both.

UT got off to a solid start in Fayetteville, jumping out to a 6-0 lead, but Arkansas still led by two at the end of the first and slowly pulled away through the fourth quarter. With the win, the Hogs improve to 21-5 and 9-4 in the SEC, and Rocky Top falls to 17-9 and 7-6 in the SEC.

This was the final chance for Kellie Harper’s team to get a second quality win. Their final three games, starting with the Vanderbilt Commodores on Sunday, are all against teams outside of the top 100 of the RPI. Here are three takeaways from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ loss.

1. Turnovers were once again brutal.

This has been a problem with Big Orange Country all year, and it manifested itself in a horrible way on Thursday. Vol Nation had to watch its team suffer through 23 turnovers, while Arkansas only had 11. The Hogs controlled the tempo of the game and kept it at a fast-pace, which favored them, and they also turned it into 11 three-pointers, which is how they got to 83 points

2. Inside game was not aggressive enough.

The Tennessee Lady Vols failed to use their size advantage miserably. Tamari Key and Lou Brown only totaled 11 shots as the starters. Kasiyahna Kushkituah and Kamera Harris each only took one shot, and Jaiden McCoy only took three. This was bad. Sure, Rennia Davis and Rae Burrell had 18 and 21 points respectively. But the post players needed to dominate, and they didn’t.

3. Shooting was more efficient. 

At least the shooting got better for UT. They hit eight-of-nine free throws, and they also hit five three-pointers, including Jessie Rennie hitting three of four attempts from the outside. Jordan Horston found a way to hit four-of-seven shots as well off the bench, scoring nine points, by being aggressive in the paint. If the inside game steps up, this team can finally come together.