Tennessee Earns Gritty Win At Rutgers

  • Sunday, December 14, 2014

No. 11/13 Tennessee used a 10-0 run late in the second half to grab a 55-45 win over No. 17/19 Rutgers on Sunday afternoon. Three Lady Vols finished in double figures as UT claimed its 10th consecutive victory over the Scarlet Knights.

Ariel Massengale scored 13 points to lead UT (7-2), eight of which came in the second half, while Jasmine Jones finished with 12. Isabelle Harrison notched her second double-double of the season behind 11 points and a game-high 13 boards. Behind Massengale's team-high 13, the Tennessee bench outscored its Rutgers counterpart by a 21-3 margin.

With the win, UT notches its first road victory over a program ranked inside the Associated Press Top 25 since it defeated No. 12/11 North Carolina, 81-65, in Chapel Hill on Nov. 11, 2013.

After a 6-0 run from Rutgers (8-2) to end the half sent Tennessee into the locker room trailing 23-20, UT battled back from its modest first half deficit, taking a 30-29 lead after Harrison capped a sequence of six consecutive points with a layup inside off a feed from Bashaara Graves. Not long thereafter, Massengale got in on the act with back-to-back made jumpers to give UT a 34-31 advantage with 12:57 still showing on the clock.

The second-half momentum appeared to be favoring the Lady Vols, but an 8-1 run from the Scarlet Knights restored the lead to the home team by a 39-35 count at the 9:00 mark. A jumper from Jones and a pair of freebies from Graves over the next two possessions promptly tied the score, but Rutgers again answered with four unanswered to stay in front as the clock dipped below seven minutes.

That lead was short-lived, though -- and would be the last the home team would enjoy -- as Harrison worked her way to the foul line on consecutive possessions for four points and Jordan Reynolds knocked down back-to-back buckets to comprise an 8-0 run that put UT ahead 47-43. After a Scarlet Knight timeout, the Lady Vols again manufactured a defensive stop and Cierra Burdick muscled her way for two of her six points on the offensive end as Tennessee grabbed its largest lead of the game to that point at 49-43.

Rutgers got a bucket back at 1:27, and after forcing a UT turnover, looked poised to pull within a single possession when Betnijah Laney drove the lane with under 50 seconds to play. But Harrison swatted the shot attempt away, leading to a transition opportunity that Burdick finished through a Scarlet Knight foul, pushing the lead back to six with just 33 seconds to play. Burdick missed the ensuing free throw, but a big offensive board from Harrison allowed Massengale to step the line where she coolly converted a pair, icing the game. Massengale dropped in two more freebies over the final seconds, settling UT's 55-45 road victory.

A defensive battle throughout, Tennessee finished the game at 27.5 percent shooting while Rutgers mustered only a 31.1 percent clip. In allowing only 45 points on the day, UT handed Rutgers its lowest-scoring performance of the season. The Scarlet Knights' previous low was 60, recorded against Colgate on Nov. 28.

Rutgers entered the game allowing opponents to shoot just 33.1 percent from the field -- a mark that ranks 15th in the country.

Both teams struggled from the field in the first half -- an opening frame that featured four ties and four lead changes along the way before a 6-0 Rutgers run to end the half sent in the Lady Vols into the locker room trailing 23-20. UT shot just 17.9 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes for their lowest field goal percentage in a single half this season. Still, the Lady Vols kept stride with the Scarlet Knights by limiting the home team to a 30 percent shooting clip. Rutgers also went only 5-of-10 from the foul line in the period.

Despite the slow shooting start, Jones was effective in the early going for UT, taking a team-high eight points into the intermission on 4-of-6 shooting. Her final points of the half came on an inside jumper at the 3:54 mark, giving Tennessee its first lead since it held a 4-2 advantage early in the game at 17:52.

Tennessee now returns to Knoxville and has a quick turnaround with a pair of games next week. The Lady Vols play host to Wichita State at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday night before welcoming No. 7 Stanford to Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday. Both games will be televised by the SEC Network. Following a short break for the holiday, UT wraps up its non-conference schedule on Dec. 28 against No. 15 Oregon State. 

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