COLUMBIA, Mo. – Redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper fired in 27 points, as No. 18/19 Tennessee held off Missouri on Sunday afternoon at Mizzou Arena, 76-71.

Cooper scored 14 in the first quarter and 10 in the third frame to help the Lady Vols overcome a slow start and 12-point first quarter deficit to improve to 16-5 overall and 4-5 in SEC play. The 6-foot guard also joined senior forward Sara Puckett with a team-leading seven rebounds and had a squad-best six steals, four assists and three blocks. Cooper received scoring help from junior forward Zee Spearman, who contributed 13. 

The Tigers (12-12, 1-8 SEC) were led by 18 points from De’Myla Brown, while Grace Slaughter added 16, Ashton Judd 13 and Laniah Randle a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Missouri grabbed a 7-0 lead in the early going, hitting its first three shots and a free throw to force a Lady Vol timeout with 7:33 to go in the opening stanza. UT finally got on the scoreboard with a pair of Spearman free throws at the 7:10 mark, but the Tigers built a 15-3 lead by the 4:50 mark while UT began the game on an 0-for-9 drought from the field. Ruby Whitehorn finally broke the ice from the floor with a layup with 4:40 to go and then Cooper took over, scoring 13 of her 14 first-frame points over the rest of the period to reel MU in. A pair of Jillian Hollingshead free throws with 15 seconds left drew the Big Orange within two, 22-20, by the end of the period.

The teams exchanged buckets in the early stages of the second stanza with a Whitehorn trey evening things at 25 before the Tigers responded with four points by the 4:49 media break to make it 29-25. Tennessee used a 5-0 burst via a Hollingshead put-back, a pair of Spearman charity tosses and another from Hollingshead to grab its first lead, 30-29, with 2:56 remaining. It then went up two on a Tess Darby three with 2:03 to go before the home team knotted things up at 33 before the teams headed into the intermission.

The Tigers used a 4-0 push to move ahead, 37-33, with 9:11 to go in third, but Tennessee stormed back on a 9-2 run, capped by a Spearman layup and Cooper steal and score, to seize a 42-39 lead and force a Missouri timeout with 6:26 to go. An Alyssa Latham baseline jumper gave UT its biggest lead, 44-39, at the 5:31 mark, but Mizzou responded with a Randle second-chance bucket before the teams headed to the 4:41 media timeout. The Tigers would deadlock things at 50 with 2:12 to go on a Judd layup, but a Samara Spencer layup, Cooper three and put-back, and a Kaniya Boyd layup handed the Lady Vols their largest lead, 59-50, with 1:07 on the clock. Slaughter, though, was able to hit a layup with 19 seconds left, cutting UT’s lead to seven, 59-52, after three.

Tennessee punched its way to a 65-59 lead with 6:24 remaining in the game on consecutive threes by Jewel Spear, and it then got an old-fashioned three-point play from Cooper and another charity toss from Spencer to carve out a 10-point advantage with 5:57 on the lock. Missouri, though, clawed its way to within five, 69-64, by the 5:25 media timeout. The Lady Vols moved ahead by nine, 74-65, with 2:36 to go on a pair of Spearman free throws and another from Spencer, but whittled the deficit to three, 74-71, after Slaughter scored on a layup with 56 ticks on the clock. The Tigers, however, got no closer, as Jewel Spear’s free throws with 16 seconds left accounted for the final score.

UP NEXT: Tennessee returns home and welcomes No. 6/6 UConn to Food City Center for a nationally-televised game on Thursday night. The Lady Vols and Huskies will meet at 6:30 p.m. ET in a contest carried by ESPN. The game also will be available on Lady Vol Network radio stations statewide and via audio stream on UTSports.com.

40-TREY TRIO: Tennessee produced its first trio of players to hit 40 or more three-pointers in a season since 2010-11. Jewel Spear (50) and Samara Spencer (45) already had surpassed 40, while Tess Darby drained her 40th trey on Sunday afternoon. The last time UT had three or more with 40+ deep balls, Angie Bjorklund (73), Meighan Simmons (63) and Shekinna Stricklen (42) accomplished that feat during the 2010-11 campaign en route to a 34-3 record. 

FOURTEEN DIFFERENT STARTING FIVES: The Lady Vols have showcased 14 different starting lineups with 10 different players appearing in the first five thus far. Ruby Whitehorn, Samara Spencer, Zee Spearman, Talaysia Cooper and Kaniya Boyd opened Sunday’s contest against the Tigers as quintet No 14. Spencer leads the team with 20 starts. Whitehorn and Cooper tallied their 17th, while Spearman added her 15th and Boyd added her third.

CAN’T CONTAIN COOP:Talaysia Cooper tallied two double-digit quarters, carding her highest-scoring SEC contest with 27 in the victory against the Tigers. The guard secured 14 points in the first quarter alone before adding 10 in the third stanza, marking the ninth and 10th frames this season where she has scored 10 or more. The redshirt sophomore has landed in double figures during the past seven of eight games, racking up her 10th 20-point performance of the season. Cooper knocked down 10 field goals and finished with a career-high-tying five treys.

TURNING UP THE PRESSURE: The Big Orange defense forced Mizzou to turn the ball over a total of 24 times. Fourteen of Tennessee’s foes thus far have committed at least 20 miscues. The Lady Vol press resulted in four 10-second violations and its overall defense caused four five-second inbound violations by the Tigers. The Lady Vols have totaled 21 10-second violations by opponents thus far. The Big Orange forced four pivotal 10-second calls in the second quarter, spanning from the 5:36 mark through the 3:03 stamp. UT forced a season-most five violations against Western Carolina on Nov. 26.