KNOXVILLE — Talaysia Cooper scored 17 points, and Zee Spearman added 16 with 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season as the 23rd-ranked Tennessee women’s basketball team beat Florida 76-65 on Thursday at Thompson-Boling Arena in the Southeastern Conference opener for both programs.
And second-year head coach Kim Caldwell gave a big assist to the home fans — attendance was listed at 10,230 for the New Year’s Day affair — for helping her Lady Volunteers dig deep during a decisive moment in the fourth quarter.
Tennessee was leading 65-60 with 4:34 to play when a foul on Florida’s Me’Arah O’Neal was upgraded to a Flagrant 1, which put Janiah Barker on the line for a pair of free throws and gave the Lady Volunteers the ball at midcourt on the ensuing possession. Barker, who finished with 12 rebounds and nine points to just miss a double-double, sank both shots and set up a 7-0 run to seal the win.
“I was really thankful for the crowd today,” Caldwell said in a postgame news conference. “I think that they willed us to get over the hump. They were great. They pumped energy into us.”
Mia Pauldo added 10 points for Tennessee, which ended a lengthy holiday break and improved to 9-3 overall this season by successfully following up an 89-44 blowout of Southern Indiana on Dec. 22. And in holding off the Gators (12-4), the Lady Vols avoided the kind of disastrous fourth quarter they had in their most recent game against a power conference foe, an 89-65 loss to Louisville on Dec. 20 in New York that dropped Tennessee’s record against ranked opponents this season to 0-3.
The Lady Vols were up by 17 points in the second quarter against Florida, but the Gators rallied to lead by four in the third quarter. Tennessee used a 9-0 run to regain control, but it wasn’t until the final stretch of the fourth that things got close to comfortable for the hosts.
“We still had a meltdown. I just think we recovered,” Caldwell said. “We didn’t let the meltdown become a 22-point loss, which is what we have been doing. … The goal is to now start to lessen the meltdowns and then eliminate the meltdowns.”
Liv McGill scored 32 points for Florida, notching her third 30-point game this season, and Jade Weathersby added 11 for the Gators, who had won four of their past five games.
Weathersby opened the fourth quarter with a layup that trimmed Florida’s deficit to 55-54, but the Lady Vols scored nine of the next 13 points, and it was at least a two-possession game in Tennessee’s favor the rest of the way.
Both teams will continue SEC play Sunday, when Tennessee visits Auburn at 4 p.m. Eastern and Florida hosts No. 3 South Carolina at 2 p.m.
Compiled by Marty Kirkland. Contact him at mkirkland@timesfreepress.com.