KNOXVILLE – Although the Tennessee women’s basketball team’s six-game losing streak ended Sunday, the foundation for that win was laid in a loss.
The Lady Volunteers beat LSU 74-65 at Thompson-Boling Arena to snap the program’s longest losing streak in nearly 50 seasons. It wasn’t a work of art by any means: Tennessee (13-7, 2-5 Southeastern Conference) turned the ball over 16 times, shot only 42 percent from the field and missed all 13 of its 3-point attempts.
But the string of defeats may have hardened the Lady Vols in a favorable manner, because they were 20-for-25 on free throws – including 12-for-14 in the fourth quarter – against the Lady Tigers. Freshman guard Jazmine Massengill, who entered the game 6-for-18 at the line, was 6-for-7 with all six of her makes in the final 1:23 of a relatively tight game.
The first three losses in the losing streak were by narrow margins, and then came a 21-point loss at Alabama that seemed like the low point. The Lady Vols played well in a 15-point loss to top-ranked Notre Dame in Knoxville last Thursday, and that appeared to have been the turning point toward Sunday’s success. But both coach Holly Warlick and Tennessee players said the turnaround started a game earlier in an 80-79 home loss to Arkansas in which the Lady Vols gave up a short jumper with less than five seconds remaining that proved to be the difference.
After Sunday’s win, sophomore forward Rennia Davis talked about how the Lady Vols played against Arkansas.
“We just had a different energy as a team,” she explained. “Although we did not come out with the win that game, I just think we played a lot more team basketball. It seemed a lot more together for me, personally.
“The Notre Dame game, again, another confidence booster, especially the first half. Just going into halftime being up on the number-one team in the country, I mean, that was good for us. Obviously, we weren’t able to pull out the win, but I feel like if we had a few less mental mistakes or just paid a little more attention a couple times, then that game is a lot closer.”
Warlick agreed with that assessment, saying her players did some “really, really” good things against the Razorbacks.
“I think that’s why we were so disappointed in the Arkansas game,” Warlick said Sunday. “We didn’t get it done, but it kind of led us into the Notre Dame game and into here. Our kids have been more focused, they have been more receptive, and they have been really together. They’re really pulling for each other, and that’s big for us.
“Everybody can’t play the same amount of time. Some people are going to play more than others in different games, and we just have to have that kind of mindset from everybody.”
If the Lady Vols are able to turn the win against LSU into even more of a turnaround as they host Florida (5-15, 1-6) at 7 Thursday night at Thompson-Boling Arena, they can look further back to the losing streak as cause for their progress.
“I just believe there’s a time and a place for everything,” Davis said. “I think that maybe of course I didn’t want to lose six games in a row, but maybe we needed that. Maybe we needed to see that we needed to get back to Tennessee basketball – we needed to play hard every possession, we needed to get defensive stops, we needed to make them turn over the ball.
“I feel like we’re starting to get back to where we started, so if this is the result we get from losing those six games, then at this point, I really don’t mind.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.