All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee Lady Vols suffer shocking loss at Auburn: 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) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Their position as a top five team was short-lived. The Tennessee Lady Vols suffered by far the worst loss of Kellie Harper’s tenure Thursday night. UT, ranked No. 4 in the AP Poll and No. 5 in the Coaches Poll, fell 71-61 to Johnnie Harris and the Auburn Tigers on the road, who were winless in the SEC and on a seven-game losing streak heading into the game.

Auburn went into halftime up 39-28 after a dominant second quarter, but Rocky Top fought back in the third and went up by one heading into the fourth. Consensus was they had taken control of the game. However, Auburn wouldn’t go away. They came back and took a five point lead in the fourth. UT cut it to one with five minutes, but Auburn then went on an 11-0 run to clinch the win.

Harper’s team falls to 18-2 and 7-1 in the SEC with a visit from the Arkansas Razorbacks set for Monday. Auburn which scored its first top five win since 1997, improves to 9-10 and 1-7 in the SEC with a visit to the Vanderbilt Commodores set for Sunday. Here are three things we learned from the Tennessee Lady Vols’ loss.

1. Turnovers finally proved costly.

We’ve been mentioning all year that at some point, the turnovers would cost UT. They lead the SEC in 17.5 turnovers per game. Well, it happened. Rocky Top had 22 turnovers to Auburn’s nine. Jordan Horston and Jordan Walker were the two elite scorers with 21 and 17 respectively, but they had six and four turnovers respectively. Rae Burrell had three.

This outweighed them outplaying the Tigers in almost every other facet. They shot better from the field, shot better from the free throw line, shot better from three and won the rebounding battle. It solely came down to turnovers, an issue plaguing them all year.

2. Post depth is an issue with Keyen Green out.

Thursday was the first time the Tennessee Lady Vols played a game this year without Keyen Green, who suffered a torn ACL at the Georgia Bulldogs and will be out for the year. It’s time to worry about the rest of the season. Emily Saunders could not provide the relief needed to Tamari Key and Alexus Dye, and it showed.

Key still had three blocks, Dye had one, and even Horston had two. However, Key and Dye combined for nine points on 3-of-10 shooting. Defensively, they allowed forward Jala Jordan, who averages six points a year, to score 11. Finally, Aicha Coulibaly led the team with 26 points, and 16 of those came in the paint. This is a big problem.

3. Dealing with success is now a question.

All year, UT seemed to be fighting to gain respect, and they finally got it this week by reaching the top five of both polls and earning No. 1 seeds across all NCAA Tournament projections. Then this happened. That suggests Harper’s team has a major issue dealing with success, and it actually showed in the game.

dark. Next. 10 greatest teams in Lady Vols history

Every time the Tennessee Lady Vols made a run in the second half to either take the lead or come within a point, their sloppy play would resume. It’s like they knew they were better and only took the game seriously when they felt threatened. That can’t be how they play going forward, and Harper has to address that.