Multiple injuries, no games for two weeks and a massive slide towards the end of the season didn’t hold back the Tennessee Lady Vols in their first March Madness game of 2022. As a No. 4 seed, UT beat the No. 13 seed Buffalo Bulls 80-67 in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn., Saturday.
UT jumped out to an 8-0 lead but fell behind 17-15 at the end of the first. They remain locked in a battle with Felisha Legette-Jack’s team until halftime, when they led just 32-30. They began to pull away in the third, and then in the fourth, up 59-54, they took control with a 10-0 run and never looked back.
Buffalo ends the season 25-9. Rocky Top now improves to 24-8 and advances to the Round of 32 in March Madness. They will next host the winner between the No. 12 seed Belmont Bruins and No. 5 seed Oregon Ducks. Here are three things we learned from the Lady Vols’ victory.
1. Inside presence was too much.
Injuries or not, the Lady Vols still have Tamari Key and Alexus Dye. Against a Buffalo team that runs four guards, they were set up to dominate, and that’s exactly what they did. Both players came away with double-doubles, as Dye had 18 points, and Key had 16 points. They each had 11 rebounds. Such dominance offset them having an off-day from three, going 3-of-13 outside.
Rae Burrell was the lone exception, going 2-of-5 from three. However, Burrell and Jordan Walker were able to score a lot posting up as well. For Burrell, the combination allowed her to lead all scorers with 19 points, and Walker was able to finish with 13 points. They had six and seven rebounds respectively, and UT outrebounded Buffalo 55-38.
2. Defense was aggressive all game
Harper really has her team playing like Pat Summitt is still coaching at its best, as once again, defense and rebounding won the day. Buffalo actually wasn’t bad from three for most of the game, even if they just finished a slightly above average 9-of-27 on the day, and red-hot shooting leads to March Madness upsets.
However, what was key was UT contesting every shot and coming away with steals. They had eight steals on the day, with Rae Burrell registering three herself, leading to transition plays being another reason she led everybody in scoring. They forced 16 turnovers as well.
3. Turnovers continue into the postseason.
This seems to show up in every single takeaway post about the Lady Vols, but it was a problem again. They had 17 turnovers on the day. If Buffalo were shooting better or had a bit more length, that would have been a huge problem.
Key, despite her brilliant play, had six turnovers. Burrell add four, as did Brooklynn Miles off the bench. The Lady Vols may be heading into the NCAA Tournament Round of 32, but they aren’t going to go very far in March Madness if they keep doing this. It’s got to be fixed if they finally want to reach the second weekend.