Rickea Jackson and Jewel Spear may not have started their college basketball careers in Knoxville, but University of Tennessee fans can be glad they found their way there eventually.
There were plenty of them in the stands Sunday to see what the veteran duo are doing in orange and white during Kellie Harper’s fifth season as head coach at her alma mater.
Spear had team highs with 22 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals, and Jackson scored 19 — breaking the 2,000-point mark for her career — to lead the Lady Volunteers to an 80-69 win against Missouri in front of a season-high home crowd of 9,190.
Sara Puckett added 15 points while shooting 3-for-4 from 3-point range, and Jasmine Powell matched Spear’s six assists as Tennessee, which never trailed against the Tigers, won for the fourth time in five games to improve to 14-7 overall and 7-2 in Southeastern Conference play.
The Lady Vols are behind only nationally ranked No. 1 South Carolina (21-0, 9-0) in the SEC standings, with a trio of teams knotted for third place at 6-3 in league play: No. 9 LSU (19-4 overall), Mississippi State (19-5) and Ole Miss (17-7).
“The league is so tough this year,” Harper said during her postgame news conference. “We talk about it so often. There are no bad teams in our league. I’ll say this multiple times: You can pick up the stat sheets, you can pick up box scores, you can look at the win/losses throughout the league and realize that anything can happen on any given night. So for us to be playing pretty consistent basketball, I’m really proud.”
Spear tied her career high for assists, and she scored at least 20 points for the sixth time this season and third game in a row. In this one, she was 4-for-7 from 3-point range.
Although she is finding the basket more often right now, the offseason transfer’s success as a scorer is no surprise — she averaged 15.6 points per game in three seasons at Atlantic Coast Conference program Wake Forest before joining Tennessee with two years of eligibility remaining.
“We knew from the first phone call I had with her, I got off the phone and knew that I wanted her on our team,” Harper said. “I fell in love with her immediately. She is a great person. Obviously, you can look at all the highlights, all the clips, see the basketball and know she checks a lot of boxes, but just everything about her has been awesome. We love her; so glad she’s a Lady Vol.”
Jackson came from within the SEC when she joined the Lady Vols in 2022, having spent three seasons at Mississippi State, and in her final college season she is not only helping Tennessee but strengthening her stock as an expected high pick in this year’s WNBA draft. She entered Sunday needing 18 points to hit 2,000 as a college player and was there by halftime, scoring all 19 of her points in the first 17 minutes of the game.
“That’s a lot of buckets. That is a lot of points,” Harper said. “It’s got to be consistent. I think that really speaks to who she is as a basketball player. She has just been an unbelievably consistent scorer. She’s able to do it in so many ways. It’s a big milestone. We’re really proud of her.”
Missouri (11-11, 2-7) had four scorers in double figures, led by Mama Dembele with 18 points, eight rebounds, four steals and three assists. Grace Slaughter added 14 points, Ashton Judd 12 and Hilke Feldrappe 11 for the Tigers, who trailed 28-17 after the first quarter and 46-34 at halftime before making things interesting in the third quarter just as the Lady Vols seemed to be pulling away for good.
Shortly after a layup by Tamari Key pushed Tennessee’s advantage to 16 points, Abby Feit’s 3-pointer kicked off a 15-2 run that was capped by a Slaughter 3 and got Missouri within 52-49 with three minutes left in the quarter. The ensuing media timeout did the Tigers no favors, with the Lady Vols coming out of it to launch a 13-0 run that would stretch into the final period.
“The timeout wasn’t a timeout that I had to yell an awful lot — a little bit,” Harper said. “It wasn’t the most animated timeout. It was a lot of, ‘Hey, let’s reset. Let’s remember what we’ve done well, and let’s go back to doing that. You clean this up, and you have the urgency defensively.’ They did it. They know. I think they understand.
“… We don’t always do it. No one is perfect, but I think they really have a good feel for what it needs to be for this team to be successful.”
The Lady Vols next face Alabama at 7 p.m. Eastern on Thursday in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide (17-6, 4-4) visit Vanderbilt on Monday before hosting Tennessee.
After taking on the Tide, just six games remain on the regular-season schedule for Tennessee, but it’s a tough stretch that includes two matchups with South Carolina, a visit from LSU and a trip to rival Vanderbilt, plus games against Texas A&M — which beat the Lady Vols in College Station last month — and Arkansas, which is currently in the top half of the standings.
Compiled by Marty Kirkland. Contact him at mkirkland@timesfreepress.com.