KNOXVILLE — Kim Caldwell kept things pretty simple when it came to what she wanted from her basketball team as 18th-ranked Tennessee returned to competition after 10 days without a game: better offense.
What the Lady Volunteers gave their head coach in return was a multitude of accomplishments on that end of the court, making a lengthy list to rival the one Santa Claus is staring at this time of year.
Janiah Barker and Mia Pauldo had double-doubles to lead a pack of seven Tennessee players who scored at least nine points, and the Lady Vols overwhelmed Winthrop 112-40 on Sunday in front of 10,091 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Tennessee (7-2), which won 65-62 at Stanford in its previous game on Dec. 3, returned from the week-plus break for end-of-semester final exams and posted season highs in points, field goals, field-goal percentage, 3-pointers, 3-point percentage, assists and rebounds. The Lady Vols shot 42-for-77 (54.5%) from the field, 16-for-42 (38.1%) from 3-point range, tallied 28 assists (while committing 12 turnovers) and finished with a 54-33 advantage in rebounds.
“I thought it was a better offensive day for us, which we desperately needed,” Caldwell said in Tennessee’s postgame news conference. “It’s the one thing I wanted today. I wanted us to push pace in transition, I wanted us to share the ball, and I wanted to see the ball go in the hole, and I think it did that pretty consistently.
“Really what our focus was was on our offense coming into this game, so hopefully this can be a big step for us.”
Tennessee’s 39-point second quarter led to a 66-17 halftime lead. The Lady Vols had shot 55% overall, made nine 3-pointers and established a 21-0 advantage in points after turnovers going into the break. Tennessee added 27 points in the third quarter and led 93-30 heading to the fourth.
“We needed the week,” Caldwell said of the practice time provided by the break in competition. “I think that they would have rather played, but I think we got better from it. You can slowly see us starting to get better, and so we just needed to string some days together, work on some different things.”
The Lady Vols’ 72-point win came one year to the day since their record-setting 139-59 victory over North Carolina Central. In that game, Tennessee set the NCAA record with 30 made 3-pointers and the 139 points established a program high.
In this one, Barker had 2o points — she was 6-for-7 from the floor (including 3-for-4 from behind the arc) and 5-for-5 at the foul line — and 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season, while Pauldo had 18 points and 10 assists for her first while also getting a game-high four steals. Each is in her first season at Tennessee, with Pauldo a 5-foot-6 freshman guard from Paterson, New Jersey, and Barker a 6-4 senior forward who played last season at UCLA after two years at Texas A&M.
Barker passed 1,000 points for collegiate career with a layup in the first quarter and now sits at 1,018.
“I think the best part of her game is how efficient it was,” Caldwell said. “… She didn’t miss very many shots, she didn’t take very many bad shots, she passed up some to pass to her teammates.”
All 13 players on Tennessee roster got in the game, with a dozen of them scoring. Nya Robertson had 13 points, Talaysia Cooper scored 12 with six rebounds, and Alyssa Latham scored 10 with five rebounds, three steals, two blocks and a pair of assists. Jaida Civil and Zee Spearman chipped in nine points apiece, with Spearman blocking three shots.
Ryiah Wilson scored 12 points and Madison Ruff was the only other player with as many as nine for Big South member Winthrop (7-5), which entered on a three-game winning streak.
The Eagles are led by sixth-year head coach Semeka Randall Lay, a former All-America guard for Tennessee who was a freshman in the 1997-98 season as the Lady Vols went 39-0 while sweeping the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament titles before winning the program’s sixth of what would eventually be eight national championships under coach Pat Summitt.
The Lady Vols, who have won seven of their past eight games, will face a fellow power conference program in their next game, taking on 22nd-ranked Louisville at 11 a.m. Saturday in the SharkBeauty Women’s Champions Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The Cardinals, who improved to 10-3 overall and 2-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference with a 76-66 overtime win at North Carolina on Sunday, will host nonconference foe Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday before matching up with the Lady Vols.
Tennessee will then host Southern Indiana on Dec. 22 before another extended break that will end on New Year’s Day, when the Lady Vols welcome Florida to Knoxville in their SEC opener.
Compiled by Marty Kirkland. Contact him at mkirkland@timesfreepress.com.