Lady Vols basketball suffered its worst margin of defeat in program history on Sunday during its trip to South Carolina. As a result of the 93-50 loss to the Gamecocks, the 43-point margin sits alone in the record book.
The previous worst margin of defeat was 31 to Texas on Dec. 11, 1984. The previous worst loss under Kim Caldwell was seven days ago to UConn by 30 points.
This now means that of the worst 14 losses in program history, Caldwell was the coach for four of them.
Here is the full list:
Italics indicate neutral site, bold indicates under Kim Caldwell
1) at South Carolina (2/8/26) – 43
2) at Texas (12/11/84) – 31
3) at UConn (2/1/26) – 30
T4) at Mississippi State (2/10/19) – 28
T4) at Notre Dame (1/23/12) – 28
T6) at Stanford (12/18/19) – 27
T6) at Georgia (1/17/00) – 27
8) at Florida (2/3/22) – 25
T9) vs. Louisville (12/20/25) – 24
T9) at Kentucky (2/27/25) – 24
T9) vs. UConn (3/29/02) – 24
T9) vs. USC (3/28/86) – 24
T9) at Old Dominion (2/14/83) – 24
T9) at Louisiana Tech (12/15/80) – 24
More From RTI: Where Lady Vols Basketball Project in Updated Bracketology After Win at Georgia
The Lady Vols held their own to start the game. While the defense struggled to get any stops, the offense was shooting well enough to keep them in it. After one quarter, the score sat at 25-18 in favor of South Carolina.
Things began to unravel in the second quarter, though. The Gamecocks stayed in rhythm while UT’s offense continued to struggle. At halftime, it was a 47-32 game.
Things completely unraveled in the third quarter, though. South Carolina hammered Tennessee 24-9 in the frame to create a deficit that the Lady Vols could never even scratch into. The fourth quarter finished 22-9, leading to the record-setting result.
As a team, Tennessee shot just 28.1% from the field and 22.7% on 3-pointers in the game. Defensively, the Lady Vols had no solution. South Carolina finished shooting 69.2% from the field and 50% from range. The one note Tennessee can hang its hat on is the 19 turnovers forced.
