Tennessee Lady Vols fall at Kentucky 75-56: Three takeaways
A third-quarter run followed by a fourth-quarter collapse resulted in the Tennessee Lady Vols, ranked No. 16 in the AP Poll and No. 19 in the Coaches Poll, suffering their worst loss of the year. Without Rennia Davis for the first time, they lost to the Kentucky Wildcats, ranked No. 20 in the AP Poll and No. 18 in the Coaches Poll, 71-56 in Lexington, Ky. at Rupp Arena Thursday.
UT allowed a 12-0 run to fall behind 35-20 in the first half and went into halftime trailing 37-26. They went on a 15-0 run in the third to take a 45-39 lead. Kentucky then opened the fourth on a 7-0 run and won the quarter 25-9. In the process, Kellie Harper and her former teammate, Kyra Elzy, split the season, as Harper’s team won 70-53 in Knoxville, Tenn. on Jan. 24.
With the win, UK improves to 14-5 and 7-4 in the SEC and will next visit the Florida Gators on Monday. Rocky Top falls to 12-4 and 6-2 in the SEC and will visit the Texas A&M Aggies on Sunday, their second of a five-game stretch in 11 days against all top 25 teams. Here are three things we learned from this Tennessee Lady Vols loss.
1. Rennia Davis was missed in more ways than one.
When you look at how UT beat Kentucky the first time, they dominated inside. With Tamari Key’s red-hot run, that was expected again. However, Key only had nine points, and she fouled out. Kasiyahna Kushkituah started with her but only had six points. This was all due to Rennia Davis not being in the game and not being able to help stretch the floor.
Davis being a go-to option and drawing attention allows Key and Kushkituah to thrive against a smaller Kentucky team. The Lady Vols still won on the inside, as Key had an amazing six blocks, and the team had 11 as a whole. They also won the rebounding battle 42-38. But given Kentucky’s style of play, they need to be insanely dominant inside. That didn’t happen.
2. Missed free throws and turnovers were inexcusable.
It’s one thing to not have your best player and to not shoot the ball well, which we’ll get to. However, the Tennessee Lady Vols still can do the little things right. That didn’t happen here. UT had 17 turnovers and just seven assists, and while Davis’ absence contributed to that, it was still not acceptable. They also went 9-of-18 from the free throw line. There’s no excuse for that.
Key and Rae Burrell both had four turnovers. Destiny Salary had another four off the bench. Joradn Walker, meanwhile, was 0-for-4 from the free throw line, and Jordan Horston went 3-of-6. Horston still had 11 points, but she was highly inefficient with those missed free throws plus going 4-of-15 from the field. Those issues are why they weren’t in the game late.
3. Three-point shooting disparities were a dagger.
This is something that will happen, and you can live with it usually, but not if you don’t have your best player, you’re turning the ball over and you’re missing free throws. Because of those things, it proved devastating. Kentucky was red-hot shooting from the three-point line in this game, going 10-of-20 from outside. UT responded by going an abysmal 3-of-11.
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Former Lady Vol Jazmine Massengill went 3-of-5 from the three-point line for UK en route to 11 points. Chasity Patterson also went 3-of-5 and had 21 points. Burrell was the only one who could truly score efficiently for the Tennessee Lady Vols, hitting 2-of-4 three-pointers en route to 22 points. However, it couldn’t overcome what Kentucky did.