Notebook: Tennessee falls to rival Huskies 84-67

Thompson-Boling was rumbling Thursday night as over 12,000 fans gathered to watch the much anticipated Lady Vols-Huskies matchup. Trailing by a mere four points at halftime, the victory seemed to be within reach for Tennessee, but No. 5 UConn pulled away quickly, cementing the Lady Vols tragic fate with a 84-67 loss. 

Suffering their seventh loss to a ranked team, the Lady Vols had many glimpses of both promise and concern in their physical battle against the Huskies. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the loss on Tennessee’s side of the ball.

UConn’s defense suffocated Tennessee’s offense

The good, the bad, and the ugly. The Huskies struck the Lady Vols from the first buzzer, delivering a fatal blow of 33 points in the first quarter. The Huskies seemed to walk right through the Lady Vols defense, scoring 16 open points from the paint and forcing five turnovers for nine points. 

Tennessee seemed to catch a rush of adrenaline in the second quarter, biting right back and scoring 19 points alongside a 7-0 run and three minute scoring drought for the Huskies.

Momentum swung right back the other way coming out of half, as a four point deficit changed to 11 in just the blink of an eye. Right out of the gates, Rickea Jackson pulled in a big offensive rebound but failed to convert the possession into points. After a solo layup by Jordan Horston to pull the Lady Vols to a two point 40-38 deficit, everything that could have gone wrong, did. 

Sara Puckett fouled, and Dorka Juhasz of UConn capitalized on a made free throw, followed by another Tennessee foul by Karoline Striplin. Within five minutes, Tennessee had gone nearly three minutes without a field goal and made just 2 of 11 attempts. That two-point deficit quickly turned to a 60-45 lead for UConn. 

“That went quick,” head coach Kellie Harper said. “They came out of the gates and we were two steps behind. That’s where you can’t be, not against them. They make you pay for that.”

The Huskies put the final nail in the coffin with a 16 point accumulation in the fourth quarter paired with five Lady Vols turnovers. 

The Lady Vols were held to 67 points, going 26 of 66 from the field (39.4%) and just 5 of 14 (35.7%) from the three. 

The most detrimental stat of all, a whopping 21 turnovers converted into 20 points off turnovers for the Huskies.

Jordan Horston gave her blood, sweat and tears for Tennessee

For the 18th time this season, Horston scored in double digits for the Lady Vols. Edging her 13th double double of the season, Horston’s quick thinking and rapid acceleration in transition, made her an unstoppable force against the UConn’s defense. 

Horston totaled a staggering 27 points paired with seven rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and one steal. Which was no surprise as Horston has an incredible track record against the Huskies, scoring a then career-high 26 points in their last matchup in 2022. 

“[UConn] recruited Jordan all the way down to the end and she chose Tennessee,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “Those kids tend to have great games against us. She’s a terrific player and has a variety of ways to score points. I’m not surprised by anything she does, when she’s healthy and on top of her game, she’s as tough a player to defend as anyone we play against.”

Horston fought to the last second, scoring 10 of Tennessee’s 19 points in the third quarter and six of their 12 points in the fourth. 

“I got to get it done.,” Horston said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to try to figure out how to win. Whatever our team needed, I would do it. Guard [Aalyia Edwards], [Dorka Juhasz], I was going to do it and I was going to do it the best I could.” 

‘Nobody Out Rebounds Tennessee’

One stat that fell in favor of the Lady Vols on Thursday night was rebounds. Tennessee recorded an impressive 41 rebounds versus a UCONN 30. 

The Lady Vols demolished the boards, putting up 38 points in the paint and pulling in an astonishing 23 offensive rebounds for 20 second chance points in return. In comparison, Tennessee held UConn to just nine offensive rebounds for just 10 second chance points.

“I’m really proud of our board play today,” Harper said. “You look at that number and that’s effort. I’m really excited, this is the first time we’ve had a big number against a ranked team. That’s a positive trajectory for us.”

Jillian Hollingshead led the team with a team-high six offensive rebounds in tandem with three offensive rebounds for a total nine rebounds on the night. 

Rickea Jackson and Jordan Horston followed up with seven rebounds each. Jackson pulled in a team-high four defensive rebounds in addition to three offensive rebounds. 

“It sucks because I wanted to win this game,” Horston said. “But we’ll get better and we keep moving. It is what it is, we got another big one, we can’t hang our heads.”

Tennessee travels to the bayou to faceoff with No. 4 LSU on Monday night at 7 p.m. The Lady Vols remain undefeated (8-0) in SEC-conference play and look to dethrone the Tigers who remain undefeated in both regular season and conference play (17-0)