COLUMBIA, S.C.—Facing a team who defeated them last season, Tennessee used a strong second half to go 1-0 in conference play. South Carolina (12-2), who beat the Lady Vols in Knoxville last season, battled for 25 minutes before succumbing to a 28-2 Tennessee run which put the game out of reach.

Leading by just one at the half (32-31), Warlick’s team was being generally out-hustled. Tennessee failed to grab a single offensive rebound in the first 20 minutes of play and was out-rebounded by a 21-9 margin.

Spani passes the ball to a teammate.
Photo by Reed Carringer

“I told our players it was a tale of two halves. I was really concerned about coming in here and playing South Carolina. [They are a] hard-nosed,athletic, very well coached team and the first half was just my expectations of the physical-ness of both teams. I was obviously concerned at halftime with their offensive rebounding and our zero. We had a good talk at half. I said we could bottle that half but we could not repeat it. I am just proud of our effort against a good South Carolina team.”

Whatever Warlick said in the locker room was effective. Trailing 40-39, a Simmons layup (10 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists) gave the Lady Vols a 41-40 lead they would never relinquish. South Carolina went a dreadful 1-22 from the field (that is not a typo) during a 28-2 Tennessee run which took the Lady Vol lead to 67-42 with 4:44 to play. Tennessee coasted to the finish from there.

Isabelle Harrison had the game of her collegiate life, finishing with 18 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Coach Warlick was understandably pleased with her emerging post star, but still challenged her to be more selective with her shots.

“I thought she (Harrison) stepped up big. She played huge, huge rebounding, huge blocked shots. She took the shots Izzi was capable of making. The shots I think she missed were shots stepping away from the basket. She can hit those, but that’s not what we wanted tonight.”

Shot selection was a point of emphasis for Warlick coming into the game and her team executed the game-plan well.

“We talked about before the game getting inside shots, in the paint shots, and that was from our post and from our guards. I was concerned that they would force us to quick shoot the basketball and just jack up the basketball. My goal was for the guards to get shots in the paint,” Warlick stated. “I thought for the most part we took good shots, but the first half they didn’t fall. I think offensively we stuck to our game plan. We shot the ball well, we shot 54 percent the first half and 47 the second. We just didn’t take ill advised shots and that was my big concern coming in.”

Senior guard Taber Spani, who has struggled with injuries this year, put in her best performance of the season. She scored a season-high 18 points on 7-11 shooting (4-5 from 3). Spani has struggled with her shot at times this year, and her night was an encouraging sign for the Lady Vols.  Massengale (13 points) and Simmons (10 points) joined Spani and Harrison in double-figures.

The Lady Vols shot 50% from the field for the game while holding South Carolina to just 29% shooting for the night.

Up Next: The Lady Vols return home to face #10 Georgia Sunday at 1 p.m. TV: Fox Sports South,