Game Recap: Women’s Basketball | February 16, 2025
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — After scoring 30 points in Oxford last season, Jewel Spear turned in her second straight gem against Ole Miss, firing in 28 on Sunday afternoon as No. 15/16 Tennessee shot 52.5 percent from the field and defeated the Rebels, 80-71, in front of 12,402 at Food City Center.
The 5-foot-10 fifth-year guard was an efficient nine of 11 from the field, knocking down five of seven tries from beyond the arc to match her previous season high in points vs. Oklahoma for the Lady Vols (19-6, 6-6 SEC). Junior forward Zee Spearman added 14 points and eight rebounds, senior guard Samara Spencer contributed 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for a double-double, and Talaysia Cooper chipped in 11 points, six assists and six steals.
Ole Miss (17-8, 8-5 SEC), which entered the game giving up only 54.4 points per game and allowed a team to reach 80 for only the second time all season, was paced by 22 points from KK Deans, who had a 6-for-12 day at the three-point arc. Tameiya Sadler contributed 14, while Kennedy Todd-Williams and Madison Scott added 11 and 10, respectively.
Tennessee forged an early 4-0 lead on buckets by Ruby Whitehorn and Spencer and carried a 6-3 edge into the 4:51 media timeout on the strength of a Spencer jumper. After Ole Miss trimmed the gap to two, 6-5, the Lady Vols reeled off nine straight via a layup from Cooper, a pair of buckets from Spearman and a three by Spear to seize a 15-5 lead with a minute left in the period. After Ole Miss countered with a Sadler layup, Spearman ran her quarter point total to six with a fall-away jumper just before time expired to provide her team a 17-7 advantage after one.
UT extended its cushion to 11, 21-10, on a Spear jumper with 7:20 remaining, but Ole Miss trimmed the margin to five, 23-18, with 5:04 to go on a three-pointer by Deans. Layups by Kaniya Boyd and Cooper, though, sent the home team into the 3:53 media timeout with a 25-18 lead. The Lady Vols built the gap back to 11, 30-19, by the 3:11 mark on a Cooper fast break layup, but a 9-1 push by the Rebels, capped by a pair of free throws from Scott, pulled them within three, 31-28, with 39 seconds to go. The Big Orange managed to have the last word in the first half, though, as Spear drained her second three of the day to send her team to the locker room in front, 34-28.
Tennessee moved ahead 36-28 at the outset of the third on a Spencer layup, but Ole Miss scored three of the next four buckets to trim the deficit to three, 38-35, forcing the Big Orange to ask for time with 8:09 remaining. The Lady Vols came out of the brief break energized, putting together an 11-1 run, with Spear scoring six straight and Spearman adding an inside bucket to send UT into the 4:36 media timeout ahead, 49-37. Tennessee pushed its lead to 13 twice, including 53-40 with 3:30 to go, but the Rebels kept hanging around and trimmed the deficit to nine twice before a pair of Spear charity tosses gave her team a 59-48 to close out the third.
After Starr Jacobs opened the fourth quarter with a layup to cut the Ole Miss deficit to 49-40, Tennessee responded with an 8-0 burst, getting an old-fashioned three-point play from Spearman, a three from Spear and a layup from Spencer to extend the lead to 67-50 and force a Rebels timeout with 7:18 left in the game. Ole Miss mounted several charges down the stretch, cutting the UT lead to nine, 70-61, with 3:59 to go, to seven, 73-66, with 3:09 remaining and six, 77-71, with 40 ticks on the clock, but a Boyd fast break layup boosted the gap back to eight with 34 seconds left and a Spearman free throw with 24 seconds to go accounted for the final nine-point margin.
UP NEXT: Next on the schedule for the Lady Vols is a 6:30 p.m. ET matchup with #21/20 Alabama on Thursday at Food City Center, completing a three-game home stand. The contest will be streamed by SECN+ and also will be broadcast on Lady Vol Network radio stations statewide and via audio stream on UTSports.com.
DEFENSE ON DISPLAY: The Big Orange defense was on point all afternoon, as it forced 19 turnovers and held Ole Miss below its 76.7 average. The Lady Vols turned those miscues into a 24-4 points-off-turnovers advantage against the Rebels, with the four allowed being the second fewest surrendered by Tennessee this season. The Tennessee press resulted in another 10-second violation, with a foe’s 23rd infraction this year occurring at the 3:32 mark in the first quarter.
SPEAR’S RED HOT AGAINST THE REBS: Jewel Spear has been a key factor in back-to-back matchups against Ole Miss. Last season on Jan. 28, Spear produced 30 points, following it up a year later on Sunday afternoon with a team-leading 28 points. The fifth-year guard has now carded back-to-back games of hitting five three-pointers and has knocked down five on five occasions in 2024-25. Spear also has tallied four consecutive games of scoring 12 or more points, dating back to the UConn contest on Feb. 6. She also moved into eighth place on the Lady Vols’ all-time scoring list (including transfers), totaling 2,123 during her collegiate career. Spear surpassed Tamika Catchings’ 2,113 points from 1997-2001.
SPEARMAN HITTING HER STRIDE: Zee Spearman was clutch against Ole Miss, netting 14 points and grabbing eight rebounds. Spearman has now assembled four consecutive games in double figures and three straight games of six rebounds or more. The junior collected her 16th game thus far with 10 or more points, the 29th of her career.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR SAM: Samara Spencer’s effort on both sides of the ball was instrumental against the Rebels. Spencer charted 13 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and a steal. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida, native notched her second double-double performance of the season, the fifth of her career. Spencer’s other double-double effort came against N.C. Central, when she produced 33 points and ten assists.
SHOOTING WELL AGAIN: Tennessee finished the game at 52.5 percent, marking the first time this season the Lady Vols have hit above 50 percent in consecutive games. UT, which tallied a season-high 55.7 percent on Thursday vs. Auburn, has now made shots at a rate of 50 percent or better for the sixth time in 2024-25.
