No. 15/13 Lady Vols Open SEC Play With 91-78 Win Over Aggies
Courtesy / UT Athletics

No. 15/13 Lady Vols Open SEC Play With 91-78 Win Over Aggies

Posted on January 3, 2025

Game Recap: Women’s Basketball | January 02, 2025

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – No. 15/13 Tennessee opened SEC play at what has been a tough place to win for the program, grabbing a hard-earned 91-78 victory over Texas A&M at Reed Arena on Thursday night.

The Lady Vols (13-0, 1-0 SEC), who had lost in five of their last six trips to College Station, were led by Texan Jewel Spear. The fifth-year guard from The Colony knocked down six of eight attempts beyond the arc to finish with a season-high 20 points. Also in double figures for UT were Talaysia Cooper with 16, Ruby Whitehorn with 15 and Zee Spearman with 14. Samara Spencer dished out eight assists with only one turnover.

The Aggies (7-6, 0-1 SEC) were paced by 20 points from Aicha Coulibaly, while Sahara Jones and Janae Kent added 17 and 10, respectively. A&M fell despite outshooting the Big Orange on the evening, hitting 56 percent from the field to Tennessee’s 47.2 percent after making nine of 13 attempts in the fourth quarter for 69.2 percent accuracy.

TAMU jumped on top, 2-0, just 16 seconds into the game on an inbound play, but Spear responded with a three-ball just eight seconds later. With a pair of Tess Darby threes, Tennessee pushed itself in front by three, 9-6, with 8:06 to go. It then reeled off six straight on a layup from Zee Spearman, a putback by Jillian Hollingshead and an Alyssa Latham layup via a dish from Spencer to move ahead 15-8 and force an Aggies timeout with 4:21 remaining. After TAMU scored twice out of the break, the Big Orange used an 8-0 burst on twos by Spencer and Latham and a three by Ruby Whitehorn to move ahead 22-11 by the 1:29 mark. A pair of Aggie scores before the end of the frame sent Tennessee into the second stanza with a 22-15 advantage.

Tennessee gave up the first three points of the next period, but an 8-2 run capped by fastbreak layups from Hollingshead and Latham gave their team its biggest lead of the night at 32-20 and elicited another Aggies timeout with 6:37 to go in the frame. The break did little to slow the Lady Vols, as they put together a six-point spree on layups from Whitehorn, Spear and Kaniya Boyd to increase the gap to 20, 40-20, with 4:18 left. UT outscored Texas A&M, 8-6, the rest of the half, getting a Spear three with two seconds left to take a 48-26 lead into the locker room and finish the period shooting 75 percent with 12-of-16 shooting over that 10-minute span. 

A 7-0 run to start the second half pulled Texas A&M within 15, 48-33, forcing the Lady Vols to ask for time with 8:44 remaining in the third period. Tennessee fought back as the going got tough, riding an 8-6 edge into the 4:54 media timeout, with a Hollingshead layup on a dime from Spencer pushing the lead back to 17, 56-39. TAMU continued to tighten its defense and scrap offensively, collecting 11 points at the free throw line to outscore the Lady Vols, 27-19 in the period. The Aggies drew to within nine, 58-49 with 2:23 left, but UT countered and pushed the cushion back to 14 at the end of three, 67-53, on a late Spear three and Spencer free throw. 

Texas A&M trimmed the lead to 10 at the 6:45 mark, 74-64 on a Taliyah Parker jumper, but five straight points by Cooper pushed UT back up by 15, 79-64, with 6:23 remaining. A Spear trey, her sixth of the game, made it a 15-point game again with 5:05 to go, 84-69, before the Aggies sent things into the 4:21 media break at 84-71 on a Coulibaly layup. The teams each scored seven points the rest of the way, with Whitehorn hitting five free throws down the stretch to fend off the hosts.

UP NEXT: Tennessee will welcome No. 9/10 Oklahoma to Food City Center on Sunday for a 3 p.m. ET contest. The Sooners make their first trip to Knoxville since 2010 and initial visit as an SEC opponent. The contest will be televised by ESPN, and fans also can listen to the Lady Vol Network radio broadcast by Brian Rice. His voice can be heard on Lady Vol Network stations statewide and via audio stream on UTSports.com.

SUCCESS IN SEC OPENERS: Tennessee improved to 37-6 all-time in its first SEC game of a season, including 19-3 at home and 18-3 on the road after winning at Texas A&M, 91-78. The Lady Vols have won their past 11 SEC openers, last losing to LSU, 80-77, on Jan. 2, 2014. The Lady Vols are 34-9 in their initial SEC away game of a season, winning their last five and 15 of the past 16. 

13-0 WITH 12 DIFFERENT LINEUPS: The Lady Vols have begun the year 13-0 with 12 different starting lineups and 10 different players appearing in the first five. Tennessee repeated a previous quintet vs. Memphis but had new ones in the past four contests. Jewel Spear, Samara Spencer, Sara Puckett, Zee Spearman and Kaniya Boyd opened Thursday’s contest. Spencer leads the team with 12 starts and Spearman recorded her ninth. Spear and Puckett tallied their seventh, while Boyd added her second versus the Aggies.

BIG WIN IN TEXAS: Tennessee improved its all-time record against the Aggies to 12-8, 3-5 in College Station. The Big Orange have now won four of the past five matchups in the series and just their second time in their last seven trips to Reed Arena. 

SPEAR’S HOMECOMING SHOW: Jewel Spear dazzled in her home state, racking up a team-leading and season-high 20 points versus Texas A&M. The Colony, Texas, native made a season-best seven of nine field goal attempts and hit a season-high six treys. The fifth-year guard finished with five rebounds, two steals and two assists. It’s the seventh game Spear has landed in double figures this season.

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No. 15/13 Lady Vols Open SEC Play With 91-78 Win Over Aggies
Courtesy / UT Athletics

No. 15/13 Lady Vols Open SEC Play With 91-78 Win Over Aggies

Posted on January 3, 2025 by Jim Kelly • 0 Comments

Game Recap: Women’s Basketball | January 02, 2025

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – No. 15/13 Tennessee opened SEC play at what has been a tough place to win for the program, grabbing a hard-earned 91-78 victory over Texas A&M at Reed Arena on Thursday night.

The Lady Vols (13-0, 1-0 SEC), who had lost in five of their last six trips to College Station, were led by Texan Jewel Spear. The fifth-year guard from The Colony knocked down six of eight attempts beyond the arc to finish with a season-high 20 points. Also in double figures for UT were Talaysia Cooper with 16, Ruby Whitehorn with 15 and Zee Spearman with 14. Samara Spencer dished out eight assists with only one turnover.

The Aggies (7-6, 0-1 SEC) were paced by 20 points from Aicha Coulibaly, while Sahara Jones and Janae Kent added 17 and 10, respectively. A&M fell despite outshooting the Big Orange on the evening, hitting 56 percent from the field to Tennessee’s 47.2 percent after making nine of 13 attempts in the fourth quarter for 69.2 percent accuracy.

TAMU jumped on top, 2-0, just 16 seconds into the game on an inbound play, but Spear responded with a three-ball just eight seconds later. With a pair of Tess Darby threes, Tennessee pushed itself in front by three, 9-6, with 8:06 to go. It then reeled off six straight on a layup from Zee Spearman, a putback by Jillian Hollingshead and an Alyssa Latham layup via a dish from Spencer to move ahead 15-8 and force an Aggies timeout with 4:21 remaining. After TAMU scored twice out of the break, the Big Orange used an 8-0 burst on twos by Spencer and Latham and a three by Ruby Whitehorn to move ahead 22-11 by the 1:29 mark. A pair of Aggie scores before the end of the frame sent Tennessee into the second stanza with a 22-15 advantage.

Tennessee gave up the first three points of the next period, but an 8-2 run capped by fastbreak layups from Hollingshead and Latham gave their team its biggest lead of the night at 32-20 and elicited another Aggies timeout with 6:37 to go in the frame. The break did little to slow the Lady Vols, as they put together a six-point spree on layups from Whitehorn, Spear and Kaniya Boyd to increase the gap to 20, 40-20, with 4:18 left. UT outscored Texas A&M, 8-6, the rest of the half, getting a Spear three with two seconds left to take a 48-26 lead into the locker room and finish the period shooting 75 percent with 12-of-16 shooting over that 10-minute span. 

A 7-0 run to start the second half pulled Texas A&M within 15, 48-33, forcing the Lady Vols to ask for time with 8:44 remaining in the third period. Tennessee fought back as the going got tough, riding an 8-6 edge into the 4:54 media timeout, with a Hollingshead layup on a dime from Spencer pushing the lead back to 17, 56-39. TAMU continued to tighten its defense and scrap offensively, collecting 11 points at the free throw line to outscore the Lady Vols, 27-19 in the period. The Aggies drew to within nine, 58-49 with 2:23 left, but UT countered and pushed the cushion back to 14 at the end of three, 67-53, on a late Spear three and Spencer free throw. 

Texas A&M trimmed the lead to 10 at the 6:45 mark, 74-64 on a Taliyah Parker jumper, but five straight points by Cooper pushed UT back up by 15, 79-64, with 6:23 remaining. A Spear trey, her sixth of the game, made it a 15-point game again with 5:05 to go, 84-69, before the Aggies sent things into the 4:21 media break at 84-71 on a Coulibaly layup. The teams each scored seven points the rest of the way, with Whitehorn hitting five free throws down the stretch to fend off the hosts.

UP NEXT: Tennessee will welcome No. 9/10 Oklahoma to Food City Center on Sunday for a 3 p.m. ET contest. The Sooners make their first trip to Knoxville since 2010 and initial visit as an SEC opponent. The contest will be televised by ESPN, and fans also can listen to the Lady Vol Network radio broadcast by Brian Rice. His voice can be heard on Lady Vol Network stations statewide and via audio stream on UTSports.com.

SUCCESS IN SEC OPENERS: Tennessee improved to 37-6 all-time in its first SEC game of a season, including 19-3 at home and 18-3 on the road after winning at Texas A&M, 91-78. The Lady Vols have won their past 11 SEC openers, last losing to LSU, 80-77, on Jan. 2, 2014. The Lady Vols are 34-9 in their initial SEC away game of a season, winning their last five and 15 of the past 16. 

13-0 WITH 12 DIFFERENT LINEUPS: The Lady Vols have begun the year 13-0 with 12 different starting lineups and 10 different players appearing in the first five. Tennessee repeated a previous quintet vs. Memphis but had new ones in the past four contests. Jewel Spear, Samara Spencer, Sara Puckett, Zee Spearman and Kaniya Boyd opened Thursday’s contest. Spencer leads the team with 12 starts and Spearman recorded her ninth. Spear and Puckett tallied their seventh, while Boyd added her second versus the Aggies.

BIG WIN IN TEXAS: Tennessee improved its all-time record against the Aggies to 12-8, 3-5 in College Station. The Big Orange have now won four of the past five matchups in the series and just their second time in their last seven trips to Reed Arena. 

SPEAR’S HOMECOMING SHOW: Jewel Spear dazzled in her home state, racking up a team-leading and season-high 20 points versus Texas A&M. The Colony, Texas, native made a season-best seven of nine field goal attempts and hit a season-high six treys. The fifth-year guard finished with five rebounds, two steals and two assists. It’s the seventh game Spear has landed in double figures this season.