KNOXVILLE — Pat Summitt has a message for her young team. The competition doesn’t get any easier.
The Tennessee women’s basketball coach, almost exasperated at times in her postgame news conference, didn’t disguise her dismay following the ninth-ranked Lady Vols’ 83-56 victory Tuesday night against Western Carolina at Thompson-Boling Arena.
“With the number of young players that we have, I guess you should expect inconsistency, but I can’t think that way,” Summitt said. “I’m going to expect and demand as much as I can from them.”
With a tough home date against DePaul on Sunday and a rematch of last year’s national championship game against Stanford looming next month, Summitt doesn’t want her team to become complacent. But she wasn’t encouraged by Tuesday night’s performance, despite of the margin of victory.
“Tonight, as I said, was not just average. It was below average,” she said.
Summitt was particularly disappointed with the inconsistent play of freshmen Amber Gray and Alyssia Brewer, who both two days earlier scored in double figures against Louisiana Tech.
“They’re going to decide in the next few weeks what they bring to our team,” Summitt said. “We’ll know what to expect. Tonight was not anything that enhanced opportunities for them.”
But Summitt also praised sophomore Vicki Baugh, who scored 11 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Freshman Glory Johnson had a team-high 19 points, and fellow newcomer Shekinna Stricklen added 13.
“Competition will eventually sort out the competitors,” Summitt said. “I think that’s what we’re seeing.”
After her third game back from reconstructive knee surgery, Baugh said she and other returning players need to assume an assertive leadership role in the absence of sophomore Angie Bjorklund, who has been sidelined with a bulging disk in her back, and redshirt freshman Kelley Cain (concussion).
“We just have to lead by example,” Baugh said. “We have to learn faster and realize that we only have one senior on this team (Alex Fuller), so the sophomores kind of have to become seniors.”
Once the team reaches full strength, though, Baugh has lofty goals.
“I believe when this team comes together, when we have everyone healthy, that we’re going to be unstoppable,” Baugh said. “Although we’re young, we can still reach our main goal, which is to get to the Final Four and win. So we definitely know what we can do.
“We have a remarkable amount of talent.”
Guard Lauren Powell led Western Carolina with 14 points, and Brooke Johnson from Seymour, Tenn., added 12.
“We haven’t seen our best basketball yet, but hopefully by the end of the year both of these teams will be competing for championships,” said Lady Catamounts coach Kellie Harper, a former Lady Vols star.
WCU (2-2) grabbed a 17-16 lead when guard Kailia’Shea Menendez drained a 3-pointer early in the first half. But Tennessee (4-1) responded with a 14-2 spurt capped by three straight buckets from Baugh and scored 12 consecutive points before the half to make it 49-26.
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