Lady Vols fall flat in top-10 showdown with UConn

AP photo by Jessica Hill / Tennessee's Tamari Key (20) and Jordan Horston wait for play to resume during Sunday's game against Connecticut in Hartford, Conn.
AP photo by Jessica Hill / Tennessee's Tamari Key (20) and Jordan Horston wait for play to resume during Sunday's game against Connecticut in Hartford, Conn.

HARTFORD, Conn. - Tennessee has yet to beat Connecticut since one of the most storied series in women's college basketball was relaunched two years ago, with the Huskies extending their winning streak against the Lady Volunteers to three games in Sunday's showdown of top-10 teams at the XL Center.

Although the Lady Vols certainly would have welcomed adding some intrigue to the revived rivalry between nonconference foes that UConn leads 16-9, right now they could simply use a win anywhere. Against anyone.

Freshman guard Azzi Fudd made the most of her first start with a stellar showing as she shot 7-for-9 from 3-point range and scored a career-high 25 points to help the 10th-ranked Huskies cruise to a 75-56 victory against No. 7 Tennessee, which has lost three of its past four games to drop to 19-4.

"Azzi looked happy playing basketball today," said coach Geno Auriemma, whose Huskies are 15-4 and have won six games in a row. "Sometimes kids that come in with that kind of hype, it's like an obligation. Today she looked like a happy kid playing a game she loves."

Fudd's first start came in her eighth appearance for the Huskies. She injured her foot in late November and only returned a few games ago.

"This is not how I expected my freshmen year to go, sitting out so many games and getting hurt," Fudd said. "This game meant a lot, and hopefully I can carry it on to our next few games this week."

UConn is 9-0 in the Big East this season and returns to league play Wednesday against Villanova.

The series against Tennessee was renewed in 2020 after a 13-year hiatus, with the Huskies winning 60-45 that January in Hartford and 67-61 last year in Knoxville, where the teams are set to meet again next season. This was the first time since 2007 both teams were in the top 10 when they met, but it came with the Lady Vols suddenly struggling after getting off to their best start in more than a decade.

"Obviously we wanted to come in and compete better than we were able to do," coach Kellie Harper said. "You pick up the stat sheet and you're shooting 28% from the field, it's not going to keep you in the game against Connecticut. And when your defense can hang tough, it's just not tough enough. We had some effort, but we had too many breakdowns defensively with our focus, and offensively we just missed too many shots."

After a home loss to reigning national champion Stanford in mid-December, the Lady Vols won nine in a row and were the last Southeastern Conference team without a league loss before getting upset at unranked Auburn on Jan. 27. They needed overtime to rally past Arkansas last Monday in Knoxville, and they were routed Thursday at Florida.

The slump started after a Jan. 23 win at Georgia in which veteran post player Keyen Green was lost to injury for the season. Green was not a starter, but her value has shown in Tennessee's trouble adjusting to her absence.

"We have just not recovered from that yet," Harper said. "We haven't, and I think right now the team is still searching - and we're not getting her back, so we have to be able to step up, and we have to be able to be mature, we have to tweak some things systematically, and then we've got to be able to find confidence in what we're doing. And that right now is the biggest drop-off for us in the last two weeks.

"We were playing with great confidence and great belief and great energy and great focus, and now we're not."

Fudd scored her team's first basket - a 3-pointer - and finished the opening half with nine points as the Huskies built a 32-25 lead. Evina Westbrook, who played two seasons at Tennessee, had 11 points in the first half. Westbrook and teammate Aaliyah Edwards finished with 14.

A 14-0 run gave the Huskies a 46-25 lead with 6:19 left in the third quarter, and Tennessee didn't threaten the rest of the game.

Jordan Horston had 26 points, eight rebounds and three assists to lead the Lady Vols - she also was charged with seven of their 15 turnovers - and Rae Burrell scored 11 points. Tamari Key had eight, but Harper is looking for more involvement from the 6-foot-6 junior.

"One, we've got to be able to look for her. Two, she's got to want the ball in there," Harper said of Key. "So we've got to go back and look at those things and see how we can make some adjustments moving forward. We have to have an inside presence. We have to, and we need that for our offensive production."

Tennessee, 8-2 against SEC foes, returns to league competition against Missouri (16-7, 5-5) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Knoxville.

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