KNOXVILLE - After splitting back-to-back road games, the Tennessee women's basketball team will host Mississippi State at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The game will be televised by the SEC Network.
The 23rd-ranked Lady Volunteers (17-5, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) are coming off a 69-48 loss at top-ranked South Carolina on Sunday. No. 8 Mississippi State (20-3, 8-1) defeated Georgia 67-53 the same day.
It's the second game in a stretch of six tough ones for the Lady Vols, with five of those against competition ranked in The Associated Press Top 25.
Here are three keys for the Lady Vols to get a big win:
1. Turnovers: Taking care of the basketball is always a battle for the Lady Vols, but keeping possession will have to be even more of a priority if they want to win this one, because the Bulldogs are great at turning defense into offense. Mississippi State has averaged 21.9 forced turnovers per game this season - tops in the SEC - and nearly a third of their scoring average of 80.9 points per game (25.0 to be exact) comes off opponents' miscues. Tennessee has averaged 17.2 turnovers per game, which ranks 10th in the league, but opponents have turned those into only 14.8 points per contest. Still, to give themselves a chance, the Lady Vols will need to value each possession.
2. Keep Key active: Lady Vols freshman Tamari Key is so important to the team because of her ability to affect opponents with her defense. She's the one post player on Tennessee's roster who can stay on the court when the other team goes with a smaller lineup because of her ability to get switched off bigger players but still hang with guards. Her biggest limitation is that she fouls too much, and that's something coach Kellie Harper and her staff have been working with the 6-foot-5 Key on, because she'll continue to be needed down the stretch of the season.
3. Get Burrell involved: I wrote earlier this week that Tennessee needs to find a second reliable scorer. Rennia Davis is the unquestioned go-to offensive option for the team, and in a perfect world, sophomore Zaay Green wouldn't have had a knee injury that took away her season. But here the Lady Vols are, and they could use somebody to step into that role. Rae Burrell has been the best candidate for that job this season, and she has had some good games. She has cooled off some against SEC competition, though, and Tennessee could use somebody - anybody - to take some of the pressure off Davis. Burrell is the player to do so, and that will need to start against Mississippi State.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.