Tennessee's Jaime Nared tries to protect the ball from Auburn's Brandy Montgomery during an NCAA college basketball game in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016. Tennessee defeated Auburn 79-52. (Saul Young/Knoxville News Sentinel via AP)KNOXVILLE - The Tennessee women's basketball team bounced back from adversity by delivering one of its best performances of the season to cap an emotional week that had its coach fighting back tears
Diamond DeShields had 25 points, seven assists and six rebounds Sunday as No. 12 Tennessee regained its shooting touch in a 79-52 blowout of Auburn. The victory came three days after the Lady Volunteers lost at home to Florida.
They did it on a reunion weekend that brought about 50 former Lady Vols and former coach Pat Summitt to Thompson-Boling Arena. Former players Candace Parker, Michelle Marciniak, Glory Johnson and Isabelle Harrison attended practice Saturday and offered the current team words of encouragement.
"It was special, I'll be honest with you," Tennessee coach Holly Warlick said as her eyes got watery. "It was special. When you struggle and you're around people who are positive, they're incredible. They're why we do what we do. They're why I'm here. They're why I have this opportunity. Coach Summitt was there. I'm sorry I'm emotional.
"I understand it's a privilege and an honor for me to coach this team. And I think our kids understand it's a privilege to wear that uniform."
Tennessee (11-4, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) followed up its worst shooting performance of the season with its best. After shooting 29.3 percent (24-of-82) Thursday against Florida, the Lady Vols shot 59.6 percent (34-of-57) on Sunday. Tennessee's field-goal percent was its best since a 62.2 performance against Arkansas on Jan. 30, 2014.
Tennessee's players watched video of the Florida game and provided their own scouting reports of what they'd done wrong.
They corrected their mistakes Sunday by working the ball inside instead of firing away from 3-point range, where they've struggled all season. Tennessee has made just 23.3 percent of its 3-point attempts and entered Sunday ranked 334th out of 344 NCAA Division I teams in that category.
"We've kind of just accepted that that's not what we're great at," DeShields said. "We've got capable shooters indeed, but we really were just pounding the ball inside and just pushing tempo and trying to get good paint points, paint shots."
Tennessee's Bashaara Graves, who was 2-of-13 from the field against Florida, was 8-of-9 against Auburn and scored 18 points. Mercedes Russell added 10 points and 13 rebounds.
Tra'Cee Tanner had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Auburn (11-5, 1-2), which was outscored 48-26 in the paint and 22-0 in fastbreak points.
"We weren't defending," Auburn coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said.
Auburn's Brandy Montgomery scored nine points in the first quarter but had just two points the rest of the way. She shot 3-of-7 in the first quarter and 1-of-6 afterward.
Tennessee, which improved its home record this season to 8-3, hasn't lost more than three home games in a season since 1982-83.
Lady Vols of the past may have had something to do with current players making sure they avoided that pitfall Sunday.
"There was a (large) amount of love and positiveness with them," Warlick said. "There wasn't, 'What are y'all doing? What aren't you doing? Why aren't you doing this?' They were like, 'Just keep plugging along and plowing away.'
"For them to do that and give us the energy and strength we need as a staff, me personally (and) as a team, you can't put a price on it."