The second round of the SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina, saw the Lady Vols continue to dip under expectations, as they were eliminated from the tournament the day they entered.
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The second round of the SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina, saw the Lady Vols continue to dip under expectations, as they were eliminated from the tournament the day they entered.
They made some more negative history, as a 76-64 loss to Alabama served as just the second time in the history of Tennessee where the Lady Vols were to be eliminated in their first game played.
The only other time the Lady Vols lost their opening game in the SEC Tournament was in 2017, against none other than Alabama.
“We had too many turnovers tonight,” Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell said. “I think we got outworked, outplayed, outcoached from the very start.”
The Lady Vols (16-13, 8-8) didn’t possess a lead the entirety of the game against the Crimson Tide (23-9, 7-9), the closest they came to a lead came in the middle stages of the first quarter after a Zee Spearman 3-pointer put the score tied at 12.
As Caldwell first mentioned in her opening statement, the turnovers felt like half of the story.
The two teams look pretty even at first glance in the stat categories, but as Caldwell said, the main difference was the turnover ratio, and by the end of the game, the Lady Vols led it 18-13 in four quarters.
The Crimson Tide led the points off turnovers 19-11, which by the end of the game, the nine-point difference meant life and death.
Only two Lady Vols players finished their game with double-digit points: Spearman and Janiah Barker.
Barker led the game with 20 points while shooting six for 14 from the field; she also turned the ball over a hefty seven times.
Spearman finished her day with 13 points, adding six rebounds to go with.
One of the most interesting storylines of the night was the lack of impact from one of the Lady Vols' most impactful players, Talaysia Cooper, who finished her game tying her career-low in minutes played in a single game with 12 against the Crimson Tide.
Cooper played just 2+ minutes in the second half before being benched.
“It was a coach’s decision, and we just wanted to give her some air,” Caldwell said. “I think your emotions can get running, and I just wanted to get her outside and with the staff members, so she could breathe.”
Cooper’s statline finished with just four points on the night; she put up just four shots and made one. She only had two assists and one turnover, but the defensive effort was not there for the redshirt-junior.
“Who knows if it was the right call, but trying to find combinations that work,” Caldwell said.
Feb. 12 was the last time the Lady Vols had won, and by the time the team plays next, it will have been over a month since their last victory. They have lost their last seven games, and lost 10 of their last 12 contests in what has become one of the worst stretches in the history of Lady Vols basketball.
Selection Sunday is on March 15. Until then, the Lady Vols will just have to sit once again in their struggle as they find out where they will be sent in the NCAA Tournament.
“Yeah, I think when you’re in this profession, you don’t get too high, you don’t get too low,” Caldwell said. “I mean, nobody was sitting here talking about us winning a national championship when we won six in a row, seven in a row. We didn’t do that. And so you try to stay consistent.”