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HARTFORD, Conn. â Junior Jordan Horston turned in a game-high 26 points, but No. 7/7 Tennessee came up short at No. 10/9 Connecticut, falling 75-56 in the XL Center on Sunday.Â
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For the Lady Vols (19-4, 8-2 SEC), senior Rae Burrell joined Horston in double figures with 11 points on the day.
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UConn (15-4, 9-0 Big East) was led by Azzi Fudd with 25, while Aaliyah Edwards and Evina Westbrook each turned in 14.
UConn won the tip and nailed a three-pointer on its first possession, but following that bucket, both teams struggled to score for nearly two and a half minutes. Tamari Key got UT on the board with a layup assisted by Horston at the 7:23 mark. Sara Puckett followed it up with a trey a minute and 20 seconds later to give the Lady Vols their first lead of the game at 5-3. The teams traded buckets until back-to-back jumpers by Edwards reclaimed the lead for the Huskies, making the score 9-7 by the media break.
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Burrell hit a tough turnaround jumper following the timeout to tie the score up at nine, but UConn closed out the period with two threes while holding Tennessee to a made free throw for a 15-10 lead at the end of the first.Â
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Westbrook snuck along the baseline to hit a layup for the first points of the second, growing Connecticut’s lead to seven before Horston sank a pair of free throws to cut it back to five. Olivia Nelson-Ododa knocked down a jumper on the other end before the Huskies were held without a point for more than two and a half minutes while Tennessee hit free throws to whittle the deficit down to 19-15.
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The four-point margin would hold until Fudd hit a three and Edwards followed it up with a layup to make the score 26-17 with 4:34 left in the half. Burrell put in a pair of free throws before Horston and Westbrook took over for the last four minutes, scoring six points each for their respective teams for a halftime score of 32-25. Â
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The Huskies opened the second half with a 14-0 run fueled by Christyn Williams and Nika Muhl to lead 46-25 at the 6:19 mark. Horston scored UT’s first points of the half from the free-throw line just under four minutes into the quarter. Fudd and Edwards followed that up with six straight points before Puckett hit her second trey of the game with 3:19 left in the third, setting off an 8-2 run to pull UT within 19 by the end of the quarter at 55-36.
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Horston found Key in the paint early in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 17, a number that would hold until Burrell hit a driving layup and drained a 3-pointer on the next possession to pull the Lady Vols within 13 at 59-46 with 5:45 left in the contest. Edwards responded with a three for Connecticut, the first of four treys the Huskies would hit in the closing minutes. Back-to-back buckets by Horston had UT within 15 at the 3:42 mark, but a 10-0 run by Connecticut dashed UT’s comeback hopes as UConn took a 75-56 win in Hartford.
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UP NEXT: The Lady Vols return home for a 6:30 p.m. ET match-up against Missouri on Thursday. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
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HORSTON GONNA HOOP: Jordan Horston turned a game-high 26 points and eight rebounds against No. 10/9 UConn for her sixth performance of 20+ points this season and third in the last four games. Against opponents ranked in the Top 25, she is averaging 20.7 ppg., 10.7 rpg., and 4.0 apg.
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MAKING FREE THROWS COUNT: Tennessee went 19-of-21 from the free-throw line for a season-best 90.5 percent free throw shooting percentage. UT’s previous best performance from the charity stripe was 83.3 percent against Kentucky on Jan. 16.Â
-UT Athletics