Massengale, Tennessee Storm Past Vandy On Senior Day, 79-49

  • Sunday, March 1, 2015

Seniors Ariel Massengale and Cierra Burdick shined their brightest in their regular-season farewell to the fans at Thompson-Boling Arena, combining for 38 pointson Sunday'sSenior Day to lead No. 6 Tennessee to a 79-49 victory over Vanderbilt.

Tennessee also clinched the SEC regular-season title with the win and South Carolina's 67-56 loss to Kentuckyon Sunday. It marks Tennessee's 18th regular-season conference title.

Tennessee (25-4, 15-1 SEC) made a season-high 12 3-pointers in the win, marking its most treys since hitting program-record 16 against Kentucky on March 6, 2011.

Massengale was hot from 3-point range, going 8-of-11 to tie  Meighan Simmons' single-game record of eight treys (vs. Virginia, Nov. 28, 2013 and vs. Lamar, Dec. 1, 2010). The eight 3's also tied for the most by an SEC player this season (Gracie Frizzell, Ole Miss). Massengale finished with a season-high 26 points, shooting 9-of-12 from the floor, and also had three rebounds and two assists.

Burdick had 12 points, six rebounds and a season-high seven assists in her final Tennessee regular-season home game. Jaime Nared added 13 points and five rebounds and Andraya Carter tallied 12 points, four boards and five assists.

Seniors Burdick, Massengale and Isabelle Harrison  were honored before the game with a special Senior Day ceremony. Big Orange Nation gave each a raucous round of applause in appreciation for their four-year contributions to the Lady Vol Basketball program.

Paris Kea lead Vanderbilt with 18 points and three assists.

With 11 minutes remaining, Graves hit a jumper and Massengale made back-to-back 3's to spark a 15-4 Tennessee run, giving the Lady Vols a 68-40 advantage with seven minutes to go. Burdick and Massengale were subbed out with 43.8 seconds left and received a standing ovation from the home crowd. The crowd erupted when Harrison was subbed in with 4.5 seconds on the clock. Carter crossed midcourt handed Harrison the ball as the clock ran to0:00.

Four minutes into the second half, Burdick hit a jumper to spark an 11-2 Tennessee run that put the Lady Vols up 53-32 with under 14 minutes left.

Both teams struggled with turnovers in the first half. Tennessee committed 13 turnovers and Vanderbilt had 15 miscues before the break.

Bashaara Graves' and-1 with 26 seconds left gave Tennessee a 39-24 halftime lead. The Lady Vols shot 55.6 percent (15-of-27) from the field in the first half and Massengale had 17 points and made all five of UT's 3-pointers. Burdick had 10 points and four assists before the break.

Vandy shot just 35.7 percent (10-of-28) in the opening half.

Massengale started the game on fire, making three 3's and a layup for Tennessee's first 11 points. Kea pulled the Commodores to within five points at 15-10 with a layup at the12:10mark. Burdick hit three jumpers on an 8-2 Lady Vol run to push Tennessee's lead to 23-12 with6:28remaining in the first half.

Tennessee is the No. 2 seed in the 2015 SEC Tournament, which runs fromMarch 4-8in Little Rock, Ark. OnFriday, March 6, the Lady Vols will play the winner of the game between the No. 7 seed Missouri and the No. 10 seed Georgia.Friday'sgame will be at6 p.m. CT/7 p.m. ET on SEC Network.

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