KNOXVILLE - Meme Jackson wants to make the most of her final basketball season at Tennessee.
Jackson scored 23 points and shot 7-for-12 from 3-point range as the ninth-ranked Lady Volunteers bounced back from their first loss of the season to beat East Tennessee State University 80-61 on Friday night.
Her seven 3-point baskets marked a collegiate career high for the senior guard and left Jackson just one shy of the program's single-game record, shared by Ariel Massengale and Meighan Simmons.
"My time is kind of limited here, and I just want to get out there and play hard every time I step on the court," Jackson said.
Tennessee (9-1) was playing three nights after falling 95-85 at home to No. 8 Stanford.
"The effort was definitely better this game," said sophomore guard Rennia Davis, who had 11 points and seven rebounds for Tennessee.
Jackson's sixth 3-pointer capped a 10-0 spurt late in the third quarter that helped Tennessee put the game out of reach.
Jackson has averaged 24.3 points her past three games. She had a collegiate career-high 33 points in an 88-82 victory over Texas on Dec. 9 and 17 points against Stanford.
Before this three-game stretch, Jackson had reached the 20-point mark just twice in her first 93 college games.
"Meme's been in the gym all summer and been in the gym outside of practice," Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick said. "When you do that, you get confidence."
Cheridene Green had 12 points and Mimi Collins added 11 as Tennessee won easily despite getting just two points from leading scorer Evina Westbrook, whose string of games with at least 20 points ended at four.
The Lady Vols spent much of the night experimenting with some unusual lineup combinations that had varying degrees of success. They pulled away in the third quarter when usual starters Jackson and Westbrook were on the floor with freshman reserves Collins, Rae Burrell and Jazmine Massengill, a former standout at Chattanooga's Hamilton Heights Christian Academy.
Massengill had five blocks and nine rebounds to go along with her four points.
Westbrook had nine assists but missed all five of her field-goal attempts. She sat out the entire fourth quarter Friday after playing all 40 minutes in each of Tennessee's two previous games.
For ETSU (2-13), Micah Scheetz had 15 points and Carley Lytton and Erica Haynes-Overton added 11 apiece.
The Buccaneers already have matched their loss total from last season, when they went 20-13. ETSU was the Southern Conference coaches' preseason pick to win the league but has struggled against a demanding nonconference schedule.
"We're not going to start backing down off our schedule," coach Brittney Ezell said. "You want to be good, play the good teams. We're picked preseason No. 1 in our conference, and I'm sure a lot of people are looking at our record and going, 'How in the world?' Well, we'll show you. Come watch us in January."
Tennessee opened on a 9-0 run to pull ahead for good, but the Bucs regrouped after taking that opening punch.
The Lady Vols didn't grab their first double-digit lead until less than four minutes remained in the second quarter. They were only ahead 48-40 midway through the third quarter before ETSU ran out of gas.
ETSU outworked and outhustled Tennessee much of the night before its shooting woes late in the third quarter enabled the hosts to pull away.