The UT Lady Vols extended their SEC win streak to 11 on Sunday, February 9th at Thompson Boling Arena by soundly thrashing the Florida Lady Gators 79-40 before a crowd of 16,629. The Lady Vols took control of the game from the opening tip-off, and never relinquished their grip. Though the Lady Gators went down with dignity, their lack of experience kept them from hanging with the third-ranked Vols and left them still winless in the SEC.
While the Lady Volunteers started the game with two seniors, two juniors and a sophomore, the Lady Gators fielded four freshmen and a junior at the opening whistle. The sole starting upperclassman for the Gators, Vanessa Hayden, was in her third game back from a broken fibula and sprained ankle.
Both teams managed to keep their intensity levels up through the entire game despite the lopsided score and the rotation of personnel. All of the Vols played 11 minutes or more except Shyra Ely who did not play due to injury, with ten Gators making an appearance on the floor as well.
Shooting percentages also bear witness to the level of defensive intensity displayed by the opponents, with the Vols being held to 43.3% overall and stifling the Gators to a mere 21.3% from the field. The Gators crashed four and five players to the boards all game, which helped keep the rebound totals close, with the Gators pulling 45 to the Vols’ 51. Gwen Jackson, the Lady Vols leading scorer with 18 points for the game, was held without a rebound.
The Vols came out running, winning the tip-off and sinking a three-pointer by Kara Lawson off an assist from Loree Moore. Following a Gwen Jackson layup and a missed opportunity by the Vols for a three-point play on a whiff from the charity stripe, the Lady Gators got on the board for the first time with a four-footer from Vanessa Hayden, the 6’4” junior center from Orlando, to bring the score to 5-2. Ashley Robinson, the Vols’ 6’5” junior center from Grand Prairie, TX, whom Pat Summit remarked was the best post defender for the Big Orange throughout the match, then committed a personal foul on Sarah Lowe to send her to the free-throw line where the 5’7” point guard sank both attempts and drew the Lady Gators to within one point. It was the closest they would come for the remainder of the game.
The Lady Vols then went on a tear, holding the scrappy Florida team scoreless with a stifling defense and quick transition game until the 12:20 mark, when Brittany Davis captured one of her two first-half offensive boards for a putback to bring the score to 18-6.
Both teams had limited success shooting in the first half as the Gators sank only seven of 35 attempts and the Vols hit only 13 of 31. Florida committed eleven turnovers in the opening stanza to the Vols’ eight and suffered seven blocked shots as the Big Orange defense seemed to string up razor wire around the basket. Even on the spare number of good looks the Gators had, they rarely managed to hit the net, instead ringing shots off the iron.
Following a Latoya Davis deuce from a drive to the basket off an assist by Kara Lawson, Sarah Lowe closed the scoring in the first half with a 3-pointer from 20 feet out to bring the score to 38-21 with 26 seconds remaining before the buzzer. Lowe would fail to score again for the remainder of the game, despite playing twelve of her 28 minutes in the final period.
The Lady Vols started the second half with a bang when Lawson intercepted a Florida pass and took it the length of the court for a layup, prompting Gator coach Caroline Peck to call a timeout to settle her players down. It was to no avail as the Vols came back two plays later to repeat the stunt, this time with Gwen Jackson stealing the errant pass and adding to the six points she’d already garnered at the midway point with another easy layup on the resultant fast break. The Vols then went on one of their patented runs, racking up 18 points before the Gators’ Mosby finally knocked down the second of two free throws off of a Gwen Jackson foul with 14:19 left in the second period and the scoreboard showing 54-22.
The Gators rotated defenses in the second half in an attempt to slow down the Vols, again crashing the boards with as many as five players at a time, but their emphasis on the glass let the Vols press their transition game. The combination of missed shots and a tough Vols defense which refused to give the Gators good looks at the basket kept the game out of reach for the rebuilding visitors, prompting Peck to substitute frequently and garner valuable playing time for the Florida bench.
Gwen Jackson, in leading the Lady Vols in scoring, also led in blocks, with three rejections. Kara Lawson, the Lady Vols’ second-leading scorer, knocked down 13 points and grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds in the contest. Lawson also led in assists, feeding her teammates six times for scores in her 24 minutes of play.
Brittany Davis, the 6’2” freshman forward out of Gainesville who was pulled from the starting lineup in favor of Hayden, led all Gator scorers with ten points and six rebounds in relief, and extended her playing time to 25 minutes. Sarah Lowe, the 5’7” starting freshman point guard finished with eight points including two buckets from beyond the 3-point arc, and five rebounds in 28 minutes of play.

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