KNOXVILLE— Tennessee women's basketball coach Kellie Harper isn't so far removed from her days as a point guard for the Lady Volunteers that she can't still contemplate some dream lineups.
Considering she was part of three national championship teams for Pat Summitt in the late 1990s, Harper's words about current standouts Jordan Horston and Rickea Jackson after Sunday afternoon's 105-71 win against Eastern Kentucky should rank pretty highly in the compliment department.
"They're confident in their ability, but they're also confident in their teammates' ability as well," Harper said in a postgame news conference. "I think when you have players like that, it makes you want to play with them. You want to be on the court with those two. I would love to play with those two. I would have racked up a lot of assists if I played with those two."
Jackson scored 15 points, Horston added 14 as she hit the 1,000-point mark for her career, and each had eight rebounds, five assists and a steal as No. 23 Tennessee (4-4) took control quickly against the Colonels (4-3). The Lady Vols led 33-11 after a first quarter in which they had a 14-0 run and shot 6-for-10 from 3-point range, and they were up 60-34 at halftime before entering the final period ahead 87-51.
Horston and Jackson were the team's top scorers for the fifth straight game and have combined to account for more than a third of Tennessee's points this season (245 of 619).
Harper used 15 players, with all but three spending at least 11 minutes on the court. Jillian Hollingshead and Tamari Key scored 13 points apiece — Hollingshead with eight rebounds and Key with six as the Lady Vols finished with a 62-31 advantage on the glass — and Karoline Striplin added 10 points. Jordan Walker matched Horston and Jackson with five assists.
Eastern Kentucky's Antwainette Walker scored a game-high 18 points and was joined in double figures by teammates Danielle Rainey (12), Emma Hacker (11) and Alice Recanati (11).
Horston, a 6-foot-2 senior from Columbus, Ohio, is the 48th player in Lady Vols history to pass 1,000 points. She's now four beyond that benchmark, and Harper, who was hired in 2019 after Horston had signed under predecessor Holly Warlick, is glad to have her on board.
"We're really close," Harper said. "We kid each other that we've been through a lot together. I think there's a pretty big trust there. There's obviously a lot of loyalty there. It's not easy to come into a program and play for a coach that did not recruit you. And she did, but I think our connection early on was really positive. She knows I love her and would do anything to help her, and vice versa."
The Lady Vols have a week off before facing No. 11 Virginia Tech at 1 p.m. next Sunday. Two days later, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will visit Thompson-Boling Arena as the fourth opponent in a run of six straight home games for the Lady Vols.