Tale of the tape: Tennessee women vs. ETSU

Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey / Tennessee's Rennia Davis dribbles downcourt during a home game against Auburn this past January. The Lady Vols' schedule for 2019-20 is set now that the SEC slate has been announced.
Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey / Tennessee's Rennia Davis dribbles downcourt during a home game against Auburn this past January. The Lady Vols' schedule for 2019-20 is set now that the SEC slate has been announced.

Tennessee women vs. ETSU at Freedom Hall in Johnson City

Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019

TIME: 7 p.m.

VIDEO AND RADIO: SEC Network + & 1150 AM

Likely lineups (with heights in parentheses):

TENNESSEE

Starters

G Jazmine Massengill (6-0); G Zaay Green (6-0); G Rennia Davis (6-2); F Jaiden McCoy (6-3); F Kasiyahna Kushkituah (6-4).

Key reserves

G Jordan Horston (6-2); G Rae Burrell (6-1).

ETSU

Starters

G Kaia Upton (5-6); G Erica Haynes-Overton (5-5); G Micah Scheetz (5-8); G E'Lease Stafford (6-0); F Shynia Jackson (6-1).

Key reserves

G Jada Craig (5-4); G Anajay Stephens (6-2).

Lady Vols report

Kellie Harper looks to do something that neither Pat Summitt nor Holly Warlick did in her first official game as Tennessee's head coach: Win. Summitt lost her first game as a head coach 84-83 at home to Mercer on Dec. 7, 1974, and Warlick's first team fell 80-71 at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Nov. 9, 2012. The last Lady Vols coach to win her debut was Margaret Hudson, whose team beat Middle Tennessee State at home on Jan. 15, 1971. Harper has a young team that controlled Division II Carson-Newman in an exhibition game.

Bucs report

East Tennessee State will sport an entirely new roster this season with one obvious exception in Haynes-Overton, the team's leading returner in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, blocks and minutes played. The Bucs brought in three Division I transfers and three from the junior college ranks, led by 6-foot guard Arielle Harvey, who averaged 9.8 points per game in 2017-18.

Key matchup

There is a lot of unknown heading into the contest, in part due to the newness of both teams. Tennessee spent a lot of its exhibition just working on different rotations and seeing just who can play together and how long certain players can play during their rotation, but those rotations will look different tonight against the Bucs, who like to pressure passing lanes and get steals for easy baskets. If the Lady Vols can handle the on-ball pressure, they should be able to handle the Bucs.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.

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