Tennessee (14-7 | 7-2 SEC) at Alabama (18-6 | 5-4 SEC)
Thursday, February 8th, 2024 | 6:02pm CT (7:02pm ET)
Tuscaloosa, AL | Coleman Coliseum | TV: SEC Network
Knoxville, TN – The Tennessee women’s basketball team (14-7, 7-2 SEC) travels to Tuscaloosa to face the Alabama Crimson Tide (18-6, 5-4 SEC) on Thursday night in women’s basketball action.
UT and UA will match up at 6:02pm CT (7:02pm ET) inside Coleman Coliseum in a contest streamed live on SECN+.
The Lady Vols have been playing their best ball of late, winning four of their last five games and 10 of their past 12, fashioning a 9-2 record since Rickea Jackson returned from an early season injury. UT’s latest triumph came on Sunday, as it moved past Missouri, 80-69, in Knoxville.
Tennessee, which enters Thursday’s game maintaining sole possession of second place in the league standings, will play its fifth road tilt in its past seven outings. UT sits a game ahead of Mississippi State, LSU, and Ole Miss, who are tied for third at 6-3 in league action.
Alabama, meanwhile, has won three in a row and five of eight to climb into a tie for sixth with Arkansas at 5-4. The Crimson Tide picked up the latest triumph in Nashville, overcoming a 12-point second-quarter deficit to upend Vanderbilt, 74-66, on Thursday.
Broadcast Details
Roger Hoover (PxP), Richard Hendrix (Analyst) and Kenzie Hughes (Sideline Reporter) will serve as the announce crew for the SECN+ live stream.
All games included in the ESPN package (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) will be available through WatchESPN, accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app, and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 or Xbox One to fans who receive their video subscription from an affiliated provider.
The contest can be heard on Lady Vol Network stations and by audio stream, with Brian Rice providing play-by-play. Jay Lifford is the studio host.
For a list of Lady Vol Network affiliates, please click on the Fans tab at the top of UTSports.com, select Vol Network and then select the Vol Network Affiliates tab.
Air time is 30 minutes before tip-off.
Season Reset
After functioning without All-America and SEC Player of the Year candidate Rickea Jackson for eight games from November 13th to December 10th and posting a 4-4 record during her absence, Tennessee has been a drastically different team since she was cleared following a lower leg injury.
The UT Lady Vols are 9-2 since Jackson returned to action and are in a season-best stretch where they have won 10 of their past 12 games.
Among those triumphs are top-60 NET victories over No. 7 Mississippi State, No. 38 Oklahoma, No. 53 Vanderbilt, No. 56 Auburn and No. 59 Florida. The win over Oklahoma in November was without Rickea Jackson.
In addition to getting Jackson back, UT has been bolstered by the continued improvement of 6-foot-6 center Tamari Key. The school’s all-time leading shot blocker was sidelined after eight games a year ago due to blood clots in her lungs and understandably needed time to reacclimate to the rigors of the game.
Tennessee also has had to absorb the loss of reserve point guard Destinee Wells, who suffered a lower leg injury just prior to the Wofford game and is out for the season. Fifth-year standout Jasmine Powell has impressively picked up more of the load, and junior Kaiya Wynn has stepped up and provided a spark off the bench on both ends of the floor.
With the players available for the past 11 contests stepping into and accepting their roles, the Lady Vols have competed cohesively as a team, with different players each game emerging to provide valuable contributions in starring and support capacities.
About the Tennessee Lady Vols
Jewel Spear was named SEC Co-Player of the Week on Feb. 6. She joins Rickea Jackson (Jan. 9) as Lady Vols honored by the league this season.
Spear averaged 23.5 ppg., 5.5 rpg., 3.5 apg. and 2.0 spg., and she shot 60.7 pct. on FGs and 56.3 on 3FGs in wins vs. Mizzou and UGA last week to share honors with Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker.
Including a 30-point effort at Ole Miss on Jan. 28, Spear has tallied 77 points (25.7 ppg.) and shot 62.2 pct from the field and 54.2 pct. on three-pointers over her last three contests.
Rickea Jackson scored 19 points vs. Missouri on Sunday to run her career total to 2,001. She became the eighth Lady Vol to reach that plateau and the third to do so as a transfer.
Jasmine Powell is averaging 7.2 apg. (36 asst./11 TO) over her past five games.
Tamari Key’s 323 career blocks rank No. 8 on the SEC all-time list and five behind No. 7 Martha Alwal (Miss. St., 328, 2011-15).
Kellie Harper picked up her 50th SEC win on Sunday and stands 50-20 in her fifth season at her alma mater.
Jewel Spear’s stats reflect a significant impact from Rickea Jackson’s return, as she improved from 8.6 ppg. and 30 percent shooting during Jackson’s eight-game hiatus to 16.9 ppg. and 53.7 percent marksmanship with Jackson in the lineup.
Since Rickea Jackson’s return to the lineup, the UT Lady Vols have shot 78.1 percent from the free-throw line over the past 11 games.
UT Connections To The State of Alabama
Tennessee juniors Sara Puckett and Karoline Striplin hail from Muscle Shoals and Hartford, Alabama, respectively.
They played in the same Alabama Southern Starz Nike EYBL program as the Crimson Tide’s Karly Weathers (Loretto, Tenn.) and Tennessee’s Destinee Wells (Lakeland, Tenn.).
UT assistant Samantha Williams was born in Luverne, Ala., before later moving to Louisville, KY, while fellow assistant Joy McCorvey is from Brewton, Ala., and graduated from T.R. Miller High School.
Samantha Williams played for the Tigers during Jon Harper‘s time there.
Lady Vol strength and conditioning coach Bryan Tatum worked with the Auburn football program in the same capacity from 2014-21.
Familiar Faces From Other Places
Tennessee’s Jillian Hollingshead and Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker were teammates at Georgia in 2021-22 before departing for new schools.
Lady Vols Rickea Jackson and Jasmine Powell played in the Michigan Crossover program, as did Alabama’s Del’Janae “Burger” Williams.
Recapping The Last Game
The Tennessee Lady Vols won their sixth straight game at home on Sunday, taking an 80-69 wire-to-wire victory over Missouri in front of a season-high crowd of 9,190 in Food City Center.
Senior Jewel Spear surpassed the 20-point mark for the third consecutive game to lead Tennessee (14-7, 7-2 SEC) with 22 points and a career-high-tying six assists and three steals on the day. Fifth-year senior Rickea Jackson turned in 19 points, scoring all of them in the first half, to eclipse 2,000 career points.
Junior Sara Puckett also had a strong showing with 15 points and five rebounds, as the Lady Vols took sole possession of second place in the SEC standings after a loss by Ole Miss vs. South Carolina on Sunday.
Missouri (11-11, 2-7 SEC) was led by Mama Dembele, who tallied 18 points and eight rebounds. Grace Slaughter, Ashton Judd, and Hilke Feldrappe were also in double figures with 14, 12, and 11, respectively.
Postgame Notes vs. Missouri
Jackson Eclipses 2K
With her move through the lane and lay-up at the 3:33 mark of the second quarter, Rickea Jackson tallied her 19th point of the game and moved past 2,000 career points. She entered the game needing 18 to tie the mark and became the eighth UT Lady Vol all-time to reach that plateau.
The list includes Chamique Holdsclaw (3,025, 1995-99), Jill Rankin (2,851, 1976-80), Bridgette Gordon (2,462, 1985-89), Patricia Roberts (2,447, 1973-77), Candace Parker (2,137, 2005-08), Tamika Catchings (2,113, 1997-2001), Meighan Simmons (2,064, 2010-14) and Jackson (2,001, 2022-24).
Jackson joins Rankin and Roberts as the three transfer players to reach 2K with combined totals from two different schools. Jackson now has 916 points in her second season at Tennessee and registered 1,085 while at Mississippi State from 2019-22.
Three Straight 20 Spots For Spear
Jewel Spear notched her third straight and sixth overall 20-point performance of the season, finishing with a game-high 22 vs. Missouri. She has combined for 77 points over her last three contests (starting with 30 vs. Ole Miss and 25 vs. Georgia), averaging 25.7 ppg. during that span.
Spear is put up 13.8 ppg. overall and 17.4 in SEC play this season, ranking second on the team.
Getting Jazzy With It
Jasmine Powell continues to dish out assists at a high rate, recording her fifth-straight game and seventh in the last 11 with six dimes or more. Her six vs. the Tigers gave her 88 for the season for a 4.4 average and 36 over the past five games for a 7.2 apg. average. In SEC play, she has distributed 53 assists for a 5.9 per contest average.
Fast Start
Tennessee burst out to a 28-17 first-quarter lead vs. Missouri, shooting 62.5 percent from the field over the opening 10 minutes. The point total and percentage were season highs for an opening period in 2023-24. UT also hit six of 10 three-point attempts, matching another opening-frame best that it achieved vs. EKU (6-10) on November 27th.
The UT Lady Vols’ previous best for first-quarter field goal percentage was 56.3 percent at Florida State on November 9th, and their previous best point total was 27 at Ole Miss on January 28th.
Ball Security
Tennessee enjoyed a turnover-free second stanza for the first flawless period of basketball all season long. UT’s last quarter without a turnover prior to Sunday was the fourth frame vs. South Carolina in the 2023 SEC Tournament championship game on March 5th, 2023.
UT finished with nine total turnovers, matching their fewest miscues in a game in 2023-24 with the nine committed vs. Mississippi State.
Tennessee Lady Vols Finishing Strong
The Tennessee Lady Vols’ top two scoring quarters this season have been the third (450/21.4) and fourth (416/19.8).
UT’s top defensive period has been the third (363/17.3).
In conference play, Tennessee has scored its most points in the fourth quarter (197/21.8) and its second most in the third frame (182/20.2).
It’s best defensive stanza in league action is the third (141/15.7), and its second best is the fourth (162/18.0).
UT outscored Mississippi State 21-5 in the third quarter on Jan. 14, holding the Bulldogs to the lowest point total in that frame, or any period for that matter, all season long.
The Lady Vols fired in 29 fourth-quarter points vs. Georgia on February 1st, tying their season high for that period (Liberty, 12/31/23) and had 33 vs. in the third vs. Liberty for the highest output of the campaign.
UT-UA Series Notes
Against the Crimson Tide, Tennessee is 25-1 all-time in games played in Knoxville, 19-4 in Tuscaloosa and 10-3 at neutral sites.
The Lady Vols have won five of the past six after Alabama had forged a five-game victory string from 2016-19.
Kellie Harper is 6-3 vs. Alabama as a head coach, forging a 1-1 mark vs. the Tide while at NC State, a 0-1 record as Missouri State’s coach and a 5-1 advantage at Tennessee.
Harper (then Kellie Jolly) was 7-0 vs. Bama as a player at UT.
UT is 17-3 vs. Alabama in Coleman Coliseum, losing for the first time there on Feb. 16, 2017, 65-57.
From 2011-16, the Crimson Tide women played in Foster Auditorium, where UT was 2-1.
About the Alabama Crimson Tide
Alabama is led by the trio of Sarah Ashlee Barker (17.3 ppg.), Aaliyah Nye (13.5 ppg.) and Jessica Timmons (11.0 ppg.).
UA has hit 179 three-pointers on the season, led by Nye’s 79 in 180 attempts (43.9 pct.).
Loyal McQueen (9.3 ppg.) paces the Tide in assists with 77, while Essence Cody (8.9) is Bama’s top rebounder (6.6).
About Alabama Head Coach Kristy Curry
Kristy Curry is in her 11th season at Alabama and in her 25th campaign overall as a college head coach.
She is 191-149 with the Tide and 500-298 overall.
Curry and the Crimson Tide made their second NCAA Tournament appearance in three years and 12th all-time bid during the 2022-23 season.
Alabama’s Most Recent Game
Kristy Curry tallied the 500th win of her career on Monday night, as Alabama earned a 74-66 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville.
UA (18-6, 5-4 SEC) trailed by as many as 12 points in the game and by eight to begin the fourth before the Crimson Tide opened the final stanza by scoring 14 unanswered points to take the lead for good.
Sarah Ashlee Barker exploded in the third quarter, scoring 15 of her game-high 24 points. It marked the third consecutive game she has tallied 20 or more points.
Aaliyah Nye produced 11 fourth-quarter points to finish with 23 for the Tide. Loyal McQueen added 16.
Last UT-UA Contest
Tennessee never trailed in cruising to an 89-76 win over Alabama in front of a crowd of 8,214 on Jan. 1, 2023, recording the women’s basketball program’s 500th win in the 36th year of Thompson-Boling Arena (now Food City Center).
Senior Jordan Horston narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and a career-high-tying nine assists.
Last Time In Tuscaloosa
No. 12/8 Tennessee ran into a hot-handed Alabama team on February 17th, 2022, falling 74-64 to a Crimson Tide squad that hit 10 threes and shot 45.5 percent on the night.
Junior Tamari Key led UT (21-5, 10-3 SEC) with a season-high 20 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Rae Burrell and junior Jordan Horston were also in double digits with 13 and 12, respectively.
Next Up For UT Women’s Basketball
After the Alabama road trip, the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team will close the regular season with four of its final six games in the friendly confines of Food City Center.
The first of those four is a 6:00pm CT contest on Monday vs. Arkansas.
That game will be televised by the SEC Network and broadcast on Lady Vol Radio Network stations and via live stream on UTSports.com.
