NEW YORK — The University of Tennessee women’s basketball team was both playing away from home and facing a ranked opponent for the first time this season Saturday night, when the Lady Volunteers took on No. 17 Iowa in the inaugural Women’s Champions Classic at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
One thing that didn’t change was the winning.
Talaysia Cooper scored 19 of her 23 points in the second half to help the Lady Vols remain unbeaten through seven games, with Tennessee beating the Hawkeyes 78-68 in a matchup of a storied traditional Southeastern Conference program and the three-time reigning Big Ten tournament champion at the home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the WNBA’s New York Liberty.
The Lady Vols beat Iowa three days after closing out their opening six-game homestand with a hard-fought 79-77 victory over Florida State that snapped a seven-game winning streak for that Atlantic Coast Conference program. And they have remained unbeaten as the season approaches the six-week mark despite this being their first season under coach Kim Caldwell, who has yet to use the same starting lineup.
Caldwell sees the flaws even without a loss, though — including 39% shooting against Iowa — and wants to fix those with SEC play coming in less than a month.