KNOXVILLE – Ashton Prechtel refused to hesitate when the opportunity to help her basketball team presented itself Saturday evening, even though she had lacked momentum for most of the game.
After coming off the bench for No. 3 Stanford and missing all five shots she took in the first three quarters, Prechtel connected on three consecutive 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to help the Cardinal beat No. 7 Tennessee 74-63 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The Lady Volunteers (9-1) scored the first 14 points of the third – Stanford (8-2) missed its first 13 shots and had eight turnovers in the quarter – to cut a 17-point halftime deficit to three. As it turned out, that only set the stage for Prechtel to step up early in the fourth, when she scored 11 of her 12 points to rescue the reigning national champions on a long road trip east.
“Ashton gives us a different look,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said of the 6-foot-5 junior who is comfortable on the perimeter. “She can spread the floor. She’s more than just a shooter – she can rebound and block shots.”
Prechtel said her coach told her she needed to keep shooting after her early misses.
“I had confidence it was finally going to go in,” Prechtel said.
“Complete breakdowns on our part,” was the way Tennessee coach Kellie Harper described the defense on Prechtel. “If we were playing football, it would have been busted coverage.”
Haley Jones scored 18 points and grabbed 19 rebounds for Stanford. Lexi Hull scored 11 and Kiki Iriafen added 10.
“Basketball is a game of spurts,” VanDerveer said. “(The Lady Vols) got the momentum (in the third quarter). We helped them a little bit. We were very sloppy.”
Alexus Dye scored 10 of her 14 points in the third quarter to spark Tennessee. Jordan Horston tallied 19 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, four steals and a block, and Sara Puckett added 10 points.
“When we started, the nerves got to us,” said Horston, who posted a double-double for the fifth time this season and extended a team streak with at least one player managing the feat every game through the first 10. “The second half, we got under control. You saw what we can do. We can beat any team. I’ll stand on that.”
Stanford’s Cameron Brink and Tennessee’s Tamari Key were in foul trouble the entire game, limiting the effectiveness of each team’s major inside threat.
Harper said Key “impacts everything we do. On defense, she’s a game changer. She impacts both ends of the court.”
One glaring weakness for the Lady Vols was at the foul line: They connected on just 16 of 29 free throws (55%). They were also outrebounded for the first time this season, 52-43. The Lady Vols came into the game No. 1 in the country in rebounds (having averaged 50 a game) and had held all nine previous opponents at or below 36% shooting from the field.
Tennessee’s most significant wins this season are against South Florida and Texas, the two teams that had beaten Stanford. Harper didn’t miss the chance to point that out to her players in hopes of fueling the chip on their shoulders heading into the game, the program’s first matchup with both the Lady Vols and their opponents in the top 10 since she took over as coach as her alma mater prior to the 2019-20 season.
Tennessee hosts East Tennessee State (1-10) at 6:30 p.m. Monday and then the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Dec. 27 before visiting Alabama three days later to tip off Southeastern Conference competition.