KNOXVILLE — After a tight first quarter, there was little drama in Thursday night’s Southeastern Conference women’s basketball matchup between Auburn and 15th-ranked Tennessee.
For the hosts, with a victory in hand even without fourth-quarter tension, it was a welcome change of pace.
Fifth-year senior guard Jewel Spear had a team-high 17 points as one of five scorers in double figures for the Lady Volunteers, who used their balanced attack and plenty of help for one another — seven players had at least two assists as Tennessee totaled 23 — to post a runaway 99-61 over Auburn at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Ruby Whitehorn added 15 points, Zee Spearman 14, Kaniya Boyd 11 and Talaysia Cooper 10 as the Lady Vols (18-8, 5-6) won for the third time in four games after losing five of seven. It also ended a run of six Tennessee games decided by six or fewer points, with the Lady Vols outscoring the Tigers 28-9 in the fourth quarter.
“I love it when everyone scores, everyone can give us something,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said during a postgame news conference. “I think it was the first half everyone scored, so it was just something for us to build upon in the second half.”
The total team performance came four days after an 82-77 loss at LSU — which moved up one spot to fifth in this week’s Associated Press Top 25, when the Lady Vols rose four spots — in which Tennessee’s substitutes had offered little in the way of offense against an opponent that got big contributions from its bench.
“Now we’ve just got to build upon it,” Caldwell said of Thursday’s performance. “We’ve got to get it every night.”
Tennessee shot 56% in the game, going 14-of-28 from 3-point range. Spear had five 3s on eight attempts, making three in the Lady Vols’ 17-0 run over the last half of the final period.
Deyona Gatson had 24 points and 12 rebounds for the Tigers (12-13, 3-9), who were 2-of-8 on 3-pointers and shot 43% overall while going just 11-of-20 from the foul line. Yuting Deng added 13 points — all but three of those came in the first quarter — as the only other double-digit scorer for Auburn, which committed 21 turnovers that Tennessee turned into 22 points.
The Tigers shot 53% in the first quarter, leading for much of the period and by as many as five points, but the Lady Vols were ahead 22-20 going to the second quarter. Tennessee, which closed the first quarter with five points from Whitehorn in the last minute, scored the first six of the second for a 28-20 lead on a Whitehorn jumper.
Tennessee’s 11-for-15 shooting (3-for-5 from 3-point range) in the period sent the home team into halftime with a 50-34 advantage. Auburn never got closer than 11 in the third quarter, which ended with Tennessee ahead 71-52.
The Lady Vols, who remain in the middle of the pack in the 16-team SEC standings, are down to their final five games of the regular season, starting with Sunday’s visit from Ole Miss (17-7, 8-4). SEC Network will televise the noon matchup.
“So, we’ve talked about just knowing the games that we have coming up next,” Spear said in the news conference, “and just knowing how important each one of them is, and taking them all seriously, and then just stacking wins.”
Caldwell, 36, is in her first season with the Lady Vols, having led Marshall to the Sun Belt Conference tournament title and just the second NCAA Division I tournament appearance in program last year to cap her lone season with the Thundering Herd. Prior to that, she spent seven seasons in charge at West Virginia’s Glenville State, her alma mater, and led the team to the NCAA Division II tournament every year, including a national championship in 2022.
She was asked Thursday night about what her first season leading the Lady Vols — whose eight NCAA titles trail only Connecticut’s 11 in D-I women’s basketball — and dealing with the rigors of SEC play has been like.
“It’s tough. It’s brutal,” Caldwell said. “You don’t have a night where you can breathe. You have to show up every night, you have to keep getting better. It’s by far the most challenging basketball of my career.”
Compiled by Marty Kirkland. Contact him at mkirkland@timesfreepress.com.