The Tennessee women's basketball team earned a momentum-maintaining rivalry victory Thursday night in Nashville, using a strong second-half showing to defeat Vanderbilt 78-69 at Memorial Gymnasium and improve to 17-4 overall and 7-1 in the Southeastern Conference.
The 22nd-ranked Lady Volunteers headed into February as winners of six consecutive conference games and six of their past seven games overall, with the loss in that stretch at Connecticut, which was ranked third at the time. Tennessee returns to competition Sunday at No. 1 South Carolina (20-1, 8-0), with the 1 p.m. game televised by ESPN2.
Here are three observations from Tennessee's latest win:
1. Posts come off the bench to produce: Tennessee coach Kellie Harper has recently turned to reserve junior forwards Kasiyahna Kushkituah and Jaiden McCoy, and they haven't disappointed her in the past couple of games. Sure, plus-minus isn't a perfect stat, but for the second straight game McCoy had one of the best figures on the team, with the Lady Vols eight points better than the Commodores (12-9, 2-6) in her 19 minutes. Kushkituah was a team-best plus-10 in 17 minutes. Tennessee's ability to control the interior changed the game on both ends of the floor. The Lady Vols showed that by ...
2. Making Vandy something it's not: Vanderbilt is not a team that wants to shoot the 3-pointer. The Commodores had averaged just 8.7 attempts behind the arc through their first 20 games this season and just six 3-point tries in their first seven SEC games. With Tennessee controlling the interior, the Commodores took 20 3-point shots, five more than their previous season high. With the Lady Vols taking care of things on defense, it started to make life a little easier for them on the other end of the court.
3. Cleaning up the mistakes: Cutting down on turnovers compared to the first half also made a difference. The Lady Vols had 13 in the first half, but shutting down things on the defensive end paid dividends as Tennessee turned the ball over just four times in the final 20 minutes. Turnovers have been a problem all season for the Lady Vols - partly from trying too hard to make "the play" as opposed to just the right play - but if they can replicate their second-half performance at Vanderbilt in the tough stretch they're about to enter, they'll have a chance in each game.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.