Columbus, OH – No. 20 Tennessee Lady Vols basketball opened its 43rd-straight NCAA appearance in dominant fashion on Friday night, hitting 16 three-pointers and smashing the SEC season record for treys during a 101-66 triumph in NCAA First Round play at the Schottenstein Center.
The Lady Vols (23-9), who are seeded fifth in the Birmingham 3 Regional, came in needing three buckets beyond the arc to surpass the previous mark of 314 by Arkansas in 2019-20 and took care of that with four alone in the first quarter. Jewel Spear’s deep ball with 5:13 to go was the record-breaker. UT’s 16 threes, meanwhile, was a program NCAA Tournament record, ranked second in all games in school history and tied for second most in NCAA Women’s Tournament history.
Redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper, one of three Lady Vols to hit three treys and one of eight UT players to connect from beyond the arc, led her team with 20 points, six rebounds and two steals. Samara Spencer hit a trio of three-pointers to finish with 15 points and five assists, while Zee Spearman matched Spencer’s total from long range and netted 13 points, and Spear added 11.
USF (23-11) was paced by Sammie Puisis, who knocked down five threes and finished with 28 points. L’or Mputu contributed 12, as her team was unable to keep pace with a deep Lady Vols squad that featured a 54-3 bench points advantage. The Bulls also suffered 24 turnovers and were outscored on points off turnovers by the Lady Vols, 36-10.
Spencer opened the game with a three-pointer just 10 seconds in, but South Florida responded with a 7-0 flurry to seize a 7-3 lead by the 8:18 mark. A 13-6 response by the Lady Vols, fueled by threes from Tess Darby and Spear, though, sent them into the media timeout with a 16-13 advantage. Back-to-back layups by Cooper and Alyssa Latham lifted UT to its biggest lead, 20-15, with 3:57 to go, but USF evened things at 20 by the 2:50 mark on a Puisis three contributing to her 15 first-quarter points. A Cooper three and a Kaniya Boyd layup helped close out the opening stanza with a 26-25 lead, as UT scored 12 of its points off 10 Bulls turnovers.
Tennessee exploded to a 15-4 start at the outset of the second period, with Spearman hitting a pair of threes during that spree and then a Spencer layup and Cooper trey extending the lead to 12, 41-29, with 7:08 remaining and forcing a Bulls timeout. The Lady Vols twice widened the gap to 13, getting a Cooper free throw to make it 42-29 with 6:37 to go and then a Spearman trey to increase it to 45-32 as the teams went to a media timeout with 4:49 to go.
After allowing a Carla Brito tip-in, Tennessee scored the next 10 points to close out the half, with Cooper and Spencer threes running UT’s total of deep balls to 10 in the first half and sending their team into the locker room on top by 21, 55-34.
The Lady Vols opened the second half with a layup from Cooper and a jumper by Spencer to increase the margin to 25, 59-34, with 8:43 remaining in the third quarter. The teams exchanged baskets, with UT taking a 67-46 advantage into the 4:55 media break.
A 7-0 USF run, including a bucket right before that timeout, enabled the Bulls to whittle the deficit to 16, 67-51, by the 4:43 mark, but a Spencer three and a Latham steal and layup pushed the margin back to 21, 72-51, forcing South Florida to ask for time with 2:24 left in the period. A three by Spear, a Cooper layup off an inbound pass and a Latham driving layup helped their team head into the final frame with a 79-56 lead.
The Big Orange began the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run and rode a 15-7 burst into the 4:11 media timeout, with a pair of threes by Darby pushing the lead to 94-63 by the 4:11 media timeout. As Tennessee closed out the game, a Sara Puckett three-pointer and a turnaround jumper in the paint rounded out the scoring and pushed the Big Orange past 100 points.
Next Up For UT Women’s Basketball
The Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team advances to the NCAA Second Round and will face No. 4 seed and No. 15/13-ranked Ohio State (26-6) on Sunday. Tip time and TV designation will be announced later. The contest also will be available on Lady Vol Network radio stations statewide and via audio stream on UTSports.com.
