Game Recap: Women’s Basketball | December 20, 2024 | Eric Trainer
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper scored 15 of her game-high 24 points in the third quarter, propelling No. 18/16 Tennessee past RV/NR Richmond, 92-67, on Friday afternoon at the West Palm Beach Classic.
With a partisan orange-clad crowd cheering them on, the Lady Volunteers improved to 10-0 on the season, marking the third time during the post-Pat Summitt era and 13th time in program history the team has begun a campaign with 10 straight wins. The Spiders, who are ranked No. 31 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, fell to 9-3 after losing their second straight game to a ranked Power Four program. No. 6 Texas defeated UR by 11 last Sunday, 65-54, on the Spiders’ home court.
Cooper, a 6-0 guard, took over in the third stanza, scoring 15 of the Lady Vols’ 26 points in the frame after Richmond cut the gap to six just after halftime. She finished 10 of 18 from the field and added five steals in her sixth game this season with 20 or more points.
Also hitting double figures in points for the Big Orange were Ruby Whitehorn with 15 and Samara Spencer with 11, with the Fort Lauderdale native knocking down three of seven tries beyond the arc and dishing a game-best six assists. Zee Spearman led her squad on the glass, hauling down nine caroms and was a rebound bucket shy of her second straight double-double with eight points on the day.
Richmond, which trailed 23-21 after one and 47-39 at the half, was led by Rachel Ullstrom with 19 points. Maggie Doogan, Ally Sweeney and Addie Budnik chipped in 14, 13 and 12 points, respectively.
The Lady Vols pushed in front early, taking a 5-0 lead with 9:07 to go on a jumper by Spearman and a Tess Darby three. Richmond evened the score at five, 10 and 12, and countered a Kaniya Boyd putback with a Doogan three to take a 15-14 advantage at the 4:46 media break. The Spiders grabbed their biggest lead of the game, 17-14, on an Ullstrom three-pointer with 4:33 remaining and led 19-16 on an Anna Camden layup at the 2:29 mark before UT reeled off five straight to wrestle back the lead, 21-19, on a three by Sara Puckett and a Spearman putback. After UR evened it up at 21, Spencer hit a runner before the buzzer sounded to provide her team a 23-21 lead after one.
UR knotted it up at 23-all out of the quarter break, but Tennessee built its biggest gap at 30-23 on the strength of a Whitehorn jumper off the glass, a Spencer three and an Alyssa Latham layup. UT pushed its lead to nine, 34-25, with 5:49 to go on a pair of Boyd free throws and a Whitehorn turnaround jumper in the paint. A 9-4 spurt via three-balls from Cooper, Spencer and Darby extended the Lady Vol lead to 13, 43-30, and forced the Spiders to ask for time with 3:15 left. UT pushed the gap to 15, 47-32, on a Whitehorn layup with 1:55 remaining, but UR trimmed the deficit to eight with a 7-0 half-ending run to trail the Big Orange, 47-39.
Richmond scored first in the second half, trimming the margin to six, 47-41, on a pair of free throws with 9:35 on the clock. Cooper offered a quick and thorough personal response, scoring 11 points over the next four minutes and putting her team up by 17, 60-43, on a layup with 5:29 to go. The Spiders managed a score before heading into the 4:29 media break trailing 60-45. Another 8-2 burst by the Lady Vols, capped by a Cooper layup, forced UR to call another timeout with UT on top, 68-47, with 2:02 left. Cooper added two more buckets in the final two minutes, finishing with 15 for the period and enabling the Big Orange to take a comfortable 73-50 cushion into the fourth frame.
A 7-2 Richmond blitz to start the final quarter elicited a timeout by Tennessee with 8:04 remaining and the Lady Vols in front, 75-57. After some course correction from head coach Kim Caldwell, Tennessee pushed back in front by 20 at 81-61 with 3:38 reading on the board, getting a layup after Cooper found Puckett en route to the bucket. An Edie Darby three-pointer with 20 ticks left gave UT its largest lead of the afternoon, 92-65, before the Spiders scored the game’s final points to end the proceedings at 92-67.
UP NEXT: The Lady Vols will take a brief holiday break and then return to action on Dec. 29, as they play host to Winthrop at Food City Center. Tennessee and the Eagles will meet at 2 p.m. ET in the Big Orange’s first Sunday home game of the season. The contest will be streamed on SECN+ and broadcast statewide on Lady Vol Network radio stations and worldwide via live stream on UTSports.com.
10-0 AND COUNTING: Under first-year head coach Kim Caldwell, the Lady Vols have compiled a 10-0 start for the 13th time in program history. It marks the third 10-0 start in the past 13 seasons and joins the 2017-18 (15-0) and 2013-14 (10-0) post-Pat Summitt era UT squads in opening their campaigns that way. Caldwell has built her second-best start to a season in her ninth year as a head coach. Top honors go to her 2021-22 GSU squad that started 29-0 on its way to 35-1 and an NCAA Division II national title
NINE GAMES WITH A NEW FIVE: Tennessee has started the season 10-0 with nine different starting lineups and eight different players appearing in the first five. Jewel Spear, Samara Spencer, Tess Darby, Talaysia Cooper and Zee Spearman opened the contest on Friday afternoon against the Spiders, marking the ninth unique first five. The tandem of Cooper and Spencer lead the squad with eight starts apiece. Spearman tallied her sixth start of the season, while Darby earned her fifth.
CAN’T CONTAIN COOP: Talaysia Cooper fired in a team-leading 24 points on Friday against the Spiders. She also led the squad in steals with five, while also producing an assist and a rebound. The redshirt sophomore has scored in double figures in every game this season except for one, carding her eighth straight double-digit contest. Cooper also recorded her sixth 20-point performance of the season. The guard has now added 20 or more points against the following opponents: Liberty (33), Richmond (24), Iowa (23), Florida State (22), N.C. Central (21) and Western Carolina (20).
SUCCESS IN THE PAINT: The Lady Vols established a big presence in the paint, contributing 52 points from the lane. It marks the seventh time thus far that Tennessee has recorded 40 or more points from paint production. The squad tallied their season-best against Western Carolina (60), followed by Samford (54), Richmond (52), Florida State (46), Iowa (44), Liberty (42) and UT Martin (42). The forward trio of Zee Spearman, Jillian Hollingshead and Sara Puckett combined for 17 of those points. Spearman contributed eight, Puckett tossed in five and Hollingshead notched four.
ON THE MARK: The Lady Vols connected on 37 of 72 shots for 51.4 percent against Richmond, finishing with their second-highest shooting percentage of the season. Tennessee knocked down 40 of 90 attempts (52.2 percent) against N.C. Central on Dec. 14 for their top showing. During the affair against Richmond, Tennessee posted 50 percent or higher marksmanship in three out of the four stanzas. The team got better after burying 12 of 27 shots (44.4 percent) in the opening quarter by sinking 12 of 21 buckets (57.1 percent) in the second. They followed suit in the third quarter (14 of 27, 51.9 percent) and the final period (9 of 15, 60 percent).
