KNOXVILLE – Tennessee won a women’s basketball game Thursday night with a performance that didn’t pass the eye test in terms of overall quality.
The trick usually works against a lesser opponent and, despite improvements, SEC foe Ole Miss fit the bill. The Rebels whittled a 20-point first half deficit to three during the third quarter but still fell 77-66 before a crowd of 8,255 at Thompson-Boling Area. The Lady Vols pulled off a similar feat, albeit with more difficulty, against Vanderbilt last Sunday.
After beating the Commodores, Charlie Crème, who projects the NCAA tournament bracket for ESPN, downgraded the Lady Vols to a No.
11 seed, the same seed they had last season when they snuck into the 64-team field. Thursday’s result won’t inspire an upgrade.
Instead, the Lady Vols’ uneven play added intrigue to their regular season finale at Auburn on Sunday.
Ole Miss (7-21, 0-15 SEC) scored as many points in the first half as it did in the entirely of an 84-28 loss to Tennessee on Jan. 9 in Oxford, Miss. Repeating such a rout wasn’t realistic. Yet it wasn’t overly optimistic to expect something better than being challenged in the rematch by three double-figure scorers and 12 Ole Miss 3-pointers.
Finally, it sounded odd afterward to hear Rebels coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, not someone from UT’s camp, evoking the memory of former Tennessee coaching legend Pat Summitt.
“I felt her spirit the whole time,” McPhee-McCuin said.
Tennessee (19-9, 9-6) needs to better channel Summitt’s spirit in terms of defense. The biggest similarity between Thursday’s game and Sunday was the struggle to string together defensive stops.
“Teams can make runs,” UT coach Kellie Harper said. “What you’ve got to do is be able to step up and guard. … Stops are more important in that time. We kind of got on our heels there.”
The Lady Vols ought to take a cue from one of Thursday’s honorees as well. Graduate transfer Lou Brown and senior Kamera Harris were honored before their final regular season home game. Brown, who’s from Melbourne, Australia, came last season but had sit out and then obtain a sixth year of eligibility after suffering a knee injury. While the injury impacted her effectiveness, it didn’t diminish her intangibles. If anything, they were enhanced by her perseverance.
“Lou plays intelligently with a lot of toughness and I think for us we are searching for toughness,” Harper said earlier this week. “We are trying to build toughness. We want more of it and she has it and that is important.
“… She is also the most experienced, the most mature player on our team and has a calming effect when she’s out there.”
Tennessee will need more toughness and maturity than it’s shown in weeks to prevail on Sunday. Despite its record, Auburn (10-16, 4-11) has beaten LSU and taken Mississippi State to overtime at home during the past month. The Tigers lead the SEC in steals (11.1 per game) and its pressing defense could give the Lady Vols turnover fits.
“We’ll make sure that we’re prepared with our execution to go against their press and their zone,” Harper said. “But when you get out there, you have to do it.”
So they will have to pull off a new trick.