Part one of a late-season revenge tour for the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team was a success Thursday night in Knoxville.
Part two will be a much taller order, but the Lady Volunteers will at least take on the task with the satisfaction of a senior night victory in tow.
Rickea Jackson had 27 points while shooting 9-for-14 from the field and 8-for-9 at the foul line, Jewel Spear added 16 points, and Tamari Key scored nine with a team-high seven rebounds as the Lady Volunteers beat Texas A&M 75-66 to improve to 17-10 overall and 10-5 against Southeastern Conference competition this season.
Solé Williams had 20 points, Janiah Barker 12 and Kay Kay Green 10 for the Aggies (18-10, 6-9), who had beaten Tennessee 71-56 on Jan. 14 in College Station but trailed 23-15 after the first quarter on Thursday and were down 36-29 at halftime and 60-49 going into the fourth.
Tennessee finished with a 44-28 edge in rebounds and outscored the Aggies 36-28 in points in the paint.
Jackson — who also had six rebounds, three assists and two steals — and fellow fifth-year player Jasmine Powell, whose six assists were a game high, were among the five players honored by Tennessee on senior night. The others were Key, Spear and Tess Darby, who all have the option to return in 2024-25 but are expected to wait until this season is complete to make their decisions.
Key reached the 1,000-point milestone for her career.
“It was really good,” Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper said in postgame quotes posted on Tennessee’s website. “You always want them to have a special night or a special day when you’re playing your last game at home. I always tell people, to me, the emotions are not overwhelming because there’s more basketball, so there’s no clean break right after this game. We’ve got a lot left on the table, so the emotions don’t come until later.
“I’m just happy for them. It’s always fun to celebrate your seniors and what they mean to your program and to your family, to the Lady Vol family.”
The Lady Vols will wrap up the regular season when they visit top-ranked South Carolina (28-0, 15-0) at noon Sunday. Tennessee will try to avenge its 66-55 loss to the Gamecocks on Feb. 15 in Knoxville, where the Lady Vols kept pace for three quarters before the visitors pulled away late.
“We had too many turnovers in the fourth quarter, I think we had seven in the fourth,” Harper said Thursday when asked what needs to improve in the rematch with the Gamecocks. “That was, I think, a fatigue factor. When you’re playing South Carolina, your focus has to be elite for 40 minutes. That’s hard, it’s really hard, (but) really good teams can do it.
“That’s what we’re going to be asking our team to do. As a team, we’ll really try to find some things that we can do better, try to anticipate some changes that we might see from them as well.”
Compiled by Marty Kirkland. Contact him at mkirkland@timesfreepress.com.