COLUMBUS, Ohio — When it comes to women’s basketball and the NCAA Division I tournament, no one has been to the Sweet 16 more often than Tennessee, with the Lady Volunteers set for their third trip in four seasons and a record-extending 37th appearance overall.
It’s all new to coach Kim Caldwell, who took over in Knoxville last spring and brought a new style of play to the court but has the eight-time national championship program in familiar territory: the second weekend of March Madness.
Talaysia Cooper had 19 points, eight rebounds, seven steals and five assists, Zee Spearman added 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting, and fifth-seeded Tennessee beat fourth-seeded Ohio State 82-67 in a second-round matchup Sunday night in front of 7,089 at Value City Arena.
Cooper and Spearman both came off the bench for the Lady Vols (24-9), but reserves having that kind of impact isn’t uncommon in Caldwell’s five-out, five-in style of substitutions to keep fresh legs for her up-tempo, press-heavy system that helped her team force 23 turnovers by the Big Ten’s Buckeyes (26-7).
In fact, Cooper played a team-high 30 minutes and Spearman, who also had five rebounds, clocked 21. They were two of four scorers in double figures for Tennessee — Ruby Whitehorn added 14 points with five rebounds, three assists and three steals, while Samara Spencer scored 10 and handed out six assists — and Tess Darby just missed with nine points while shooting 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
“I thought we played really hard, probably the hardest we’ve played all year, which is what we needed,” Caldwell said. “Hats off to the Ohio State fan base. It was loud in there for a period of time. Our huddles were tight. We did a really good job of playing through the runs.”
The Lady Vols, who were slotted into the Regional 3 quadrant when the 68-team bracket was unveiled the previous Sunday, will play in the Sweet 16 next weekend at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama. They will face either No. 1 seed Texas (32-3) — a fellow Southeastern Conference program — or No. 8 seed Illinois (22-9), a Big Ten member. The Longhorns host the Fighting Illini on Monday afternoon in Austin.
“This was something we talked about from the very beginning, that we wanted to make it to the Sweet 16,” Caldwell said. “I’m happy for them. I’m happy to see how excited they are.”
Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge had 19 points, five rebounds and three assists, but also eight turnovers. Cotie McMahon added 17 points — she was 3-for-4 from 3-point range — and five rebounds, while Thierry Taylor (who played 38-plus minutes) and Ajae Petty each had eight points and six rebounds for the Buckeyes, who lost in the second round for the second year in a row.
“They are a really good team,” Tennessee guard Jewel Spear said. “We went on our run, they went on their run. We just stayed together. We stayed calm. It was very loud in there, so we needed each other, and we had each other’s back.”
AP photo by Jeff Dean / Ohio State’s Kennedy Cambridge (3) battles for a loose ball with visiting Tennessee’s Zee Spearman during the second half an NCAA tournament second-round game Sunday night in Columbus.Tennessee scored 37 points off Ohio State’s 23 turnovers. The Lady Vols, who totaled 15 steals, also held a 21-6 edge in second-chance points.
“When you give up 37 points off turnovers and allow 21 second-chance points, you’re not really giving yourself a chance to win,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. “So credit goes to Tennessee. I thought they played really well and they deserved to win today.”
The second half was one run after another. Tennessee scored 14 straight points to go ahead 54-37, but Ohio State came back with a 20-2 outburst to briefly lead at 57-56.
Tennessee responded with a 15-4 run to go ahead for good. Cooper started it with a 3-pointer and a layup off a steal. Whitehorn then helped cap it with a putback basket and a 3 from the left corner to beat the shot clock that made it 71-61 with 7:18 left.
“I think this shows we’re growing,” Caldwell said. “I think we’re playing as a team. We knew (Ohio State’s run) was going to happen and we’ve been through that a lot. We’ve been through it countless other games. I wanted them to be able to just work through it.”
The Lady Vols are the only team to participate in all 43 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournaments since the event’s inception in 1982, but Caldwell is making just her second appearance overall and her first with Tennessee.
Caldwell won the 2022 Division II national championship while leading West Virginia’s Glenville State, her alma mater in her home state, and she spent last season as the head coach at Marshall, getting the team to the D-I tournament but losing in the first round at Virginia Tech.
When the Lady Vols beat 12th-seeded South Florida 101-66 on Friday, it was her first NCAA D-I tourney win but the 164th game across Tennesee’s 43 appearances. That win came two weeks after a second-round defeat at the SEC tournament that was Tennessee’s third loss in four games, and the Lady Vols looked a lot more energetic in their back-to-back victories in Columbus than they did during that bumpy stretch.
Spear played three years at Wake Forest and is in her second at Tennessee, choosing to use her final college season with the Lady Vols despite the transition to a new coach. After last season ended in the second round with a loss at N.C. State, which went on to reach the Final Four, she is getting the opportunity to extend her time on the court.
“This means a lot for the program and the people that are here right now with Coach Kim coming in for her first year,” Spear said. “For the people that stayed and the transfers that came in, it just talks a lot about the culture that we established from day one.”