The Lady Vols defeated SEC rival Alabama on Thursday night 88-80, winning its 20th game of the season in Kim Caldwell's first year on Rocky Top. The win matches last year's win total with three regular-season games remaining.
After struggling against ranked opponents throughout conference play, Tennessee played like the better team against Alabama despite a fourth-quarter comeback attempt by the Crimson Tide.
Turnovers throughout the first half allowed Alabama to stay in the game, but the Lady Vols went on a 10-0 run to end the first half and an 11-0 run to start the second half to build the lead they ultimately needed to win the game.
Jewel Spear led the Lady Vols in scoring with 20 points on 66% shooting from the field and 50% shooting from three-point range. Zee Spearman dominated the boards for Tennessee and recorded nine rebounds, the most any player in the game.
Caldwell talked about the Lady Vols not finishing after the game but will not complain too much about the win over a ranked SEC opponent.
"I wish we could have finished it a little better, but any time you can win in this league against a top-ranked opponent, you'll take it," Caldwell said postgame.
With the win, Tennessee sweeps its three-game homestand with wins over Auburn, Ole Miss, and now Alabama. Caldwell focused on finishing the game regardless of the score.
"It was good to play better at home. I think we're trending in the right direction. I just think we need to finish the game," Caldwell said. "I think all the games we had at home, the last two specifically, we had double-digit leads that easily could have gone to 20, 25, maybe even 30 and we just didn't finish."
Now Tennessee turns to a two-game road trip. The Lady Vols will travel to a couple of rivals, with the first game being against Florida on Sunday, and then they will travel to Kentucky in another ranked SEC matchup next Thursday.