Tennessee’s Cheridene Green looks for an open teammate during Sunday’s game against Missouri at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.KNOXVILLE – Injuries have limited what was already going to be a thin bench for the Tennessee women’s basketball team this season.
That doesn’t mean coach Holly Warlick doesn’t need more out of the players coming off that bench.
Heading into the 13th-ranked Lady Volunteers’ game against No. 16 Kentucky (14-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) tonight at 7, the challenge for Tennessee (12-2, 1-1) is preventing a second consecutive loss at Thompson-Boling Arena. The program hasn’t lost back-to-back home games since December 1996, when Tennessee fell 94-93 in overtime to No. 5 Georgia on Dec. 8, then 82-65 to No. 1 Stanford seven days later.
The 1996-97 Lady Vols lost 10 games but also won the national championship.
The expectations for this team, one with four freshmen and three sophomores on the 10-player active roster, aren’t quite that high. Tennessee has been largely buoyed by its starters, having received only 25 points from players off the bench in five games against Power Five competition (Oklahoma State, Texas, Stanford, Auburn and Missouri). Tennessee is 3-2 in those games after a 66-64 home loss to Missouri on Sunday.