OXFORD, Miss. – Meme Jackson was 5-for-6 from 3-point range in a 20-point performance Sunday as she led Tennessee to an 81-56 victory at Ole Miss in the regular-season finale for both teams.
The Lady Volunteers (18-11, 7-9 Southeastern Conference) snapped a three-game losing streak and avoided being relegated to a first-day, play-in game at this week’s SEC tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. Tennessee is the league’s No. 8 seed and will play a second-round matchup at noon Thursday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, taking on No. 9 seed LSU (16-12, 7-9), which lost 74-65 to the Lady Vols on Jan. 27 in Knoxville.
Still, the Lady Vols posted their first losing record in SEC regular-season competition, and even with Sunday’s dominant win, they could be in danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time. Tennessee is the only program to make the bracket every time since the women’s event started in 1982.
The Lady Vols entered Sunday’s matchup at Ole Miss coming off another low point in a season with plenty of them – Vanderbilt’s first-ever win in Knoxville, 76-69 on Thursday. But against the Rebels, Tennessee took command by going on a 23-2 run that started late in the first quarter and carried over to the second.
“That game for us was nothing except a lot of heart,” Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick said in her postgame news conference. “That’s all we talked about before the game. We didn’t talk about offensively, defensively, we just talked about having personal respect, self-respect, and you can control that.