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Tennessee Lady Vols beat ETSU 112-58: Three takeaways

By Caleb Calhoun

Tennessee forward Alexus Dye (2) is guarded by ETSU center Jakhyia Davis (24) in the NCAA women's basketball game between the Tennessee Lady Vols and East Tennessee State Buccaneers in Knoxville, Tenn. on Monday, December 20, 2021.Lady Hoops Etsu
Tennessee forward Alexus Dye (2) is guarded by ETSU center Jakhyia Davis (24) in the NCAA women's basketball game between the Tennessee Lady Vols and East Tennessee State Buccaneers in Knoxville, Tenn. on Monday, December 20, 2021.Lady Hoops Etsu /
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Despite a quick turnaround from their first loss of the season on Saturday against the Stanford Cardinal, the Tennessee Lady Vols cruised to a dominant victory at home Monday night against an in-state foe. UT beat the East Tennessee State Buccaneers 112-58 to improve to 10-1 on the year in their final game before Christmas.

Although the ETSU Bucs scored the first bucket to go up 3-0, UT, ranked No. 7 in the AP Poll and No. 9 in the Coaches Poll, then went on an 8-0 run and held the lead the rest of the way. Up next for Kellie Harper’s team will be the Chattanooga Mocs next Monday before they begin SEC play the following Thursday against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

On the other side, ETSU, under first-year head coach Simon Harris, fell to 1-11 on the year and lost their ninth straight. They will next host the St. Bonaventure Bonnies Thursday and the Lynchburg hornets Sunday, Jan. 2 before beginning Southern Conference Play Thursday, Jan. 6 at the Mercer Bears. Here are three things we learned from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ victory.

1. Post players dominated.

All three rotational forwards had double figures. Keyen Green led that group off the bench with 13 points. Alexus Dye had 13 points. Karoline Stripline had 10 points. Then came Tamari Key, the one rotational center, who led all of them with 16 points. Her backup, Emily Saunders, almost had double figures with eight points.

Scoring wasn’t the only way they dominated. UT won the rebounding edge 61-27 and had 26 offensive rebounds. Dye had a double-double with 11 rebounds to go with her 13 points, and Key had three blocks. Kaia Wynn also had a double-double with 10 rebounds off the bench. After not dominating the way they typically have last Saturday, they certainly made up for it in this game.

2. Three-point shooting by backups is what made the offense memorable.

This was the most points scored by the Tennessee Lady Vols in the Kellie Harper era. They did it without Rae Burrell and with Jordan Horston being held to seven points and Tess Darby, their main three-point specialist, going 0-of-5 from beyond the arc and 1-of-6 from three. How did that happen? Sure, the inside game was dominant, but you’d need more than that.

Well, Harper had an inside-out game that worked better than it has worked all year. The outside part came from the bench. Sara Puckett was dominant, leading all scorers with 19 points. She went 3-of-4 from three. Kaia Wynn hit a three-pointer en route to 12 points. Jessie Rennie hit 2-of-5 threes and scored six points. This all is how the offense dominated.

3. Read nothing into this.

Despite how elite of an offensive performance Rocky Top put on Monday, we can’t ignore who it was against. ETSU has a new head coach, and eight of their 13 players are true freshmen. They have no seniors on the team, which explains why they have struggled so much.

Outside of 6’3″ center Jakhyia Davis, who did have 17 points and eight rebounds, nobody on ETSU who played Monday is above 5’10”, so the Tennessee Lady Vols should have dominated in the paint the way they did. Taking this into account, while this was a fun win, and while UT deserves credit for what it’s done to this point, there’s nothing anybody can gain from this.