Lady Vols basketball has been uncompetitive in its top-10 games this season. That wasn’t the case against Texas, but Tennessee still fell short. The Lady Vols wound up losing 65-63.
Here are three quick takeaways from the loss.
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Lady Vols Storm Back Ahead of the Half
It started to look like an all-too-familiar story for the Lady Vols. After trading shots early, shots stopped falling for Tennessee and continued to drop for Texas. All of a sudden, it was a 14-point lead for the Longhorns early in the second quarter.
Instead of quitting like they did at South Carolina, the Lady Vols showed resolve. Largely thanks to a dominant stretch from Talaysia Cooper, UT scored 10 unanswered points to finish the half. This featured holding Texas scoreless for the final four minutes and 53 seconds.
At the break, Cooper has posted 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting from the field and 2-for-3 from range. She passed for one assist and had two steals, but turned it over three times, as well. Still, it was her play late in the second quarter that did a lot of the heavy lifting.
The Shot Selection Was Better
The Lady Vols don’t have the personnel to shoot as many threes as they’d like. Especially with Mia Pauldo sitting out for a second straight game with a concussion, there just aren’t many reliable options from range.
Still, Tennessee has found itself falling into the trap of jacking up way too many threes a game at times. A lot of the time, they aren’t even necessarily great looks. It’ll be early in the shot clock and without an attempt to at least see if there’s anything in the paint.
The Lady Vols did a much better job with their shot selection against Texas, though. Overall, Tennessee shot 45.5% from the field and 38.1% from range. That was on 8-for-21 shooting from three.
No Moral Victories, But…
There aren’t moral victories in the Lady Vols program. There is no excuse for Tennessee not to be competing for national championships every single season.
This year has been a strange one, though. After getting frankly slaughtered by four other top-10 opponents, this was at the very least a step back in the right direction. You hosted the No. 4 team in the nation, held it together for 40 minutes and kept things competitive.
Let’s be clear, that’s still not enough, though. Tennessee needs to be winning these games. They’ll have a few more opportunities against quality opponents left this season, and beating at least one could go a long way in NCAA Tournament seeding.
Final Stats
Up Next
The Lady Vols have a busy week on the horizon. The previously rescheduled Ole Miss game now lands on Tuesday in Oxford. That will tip off at 7 p.m. ET and air on ESPNU.
Then, Tennessee will host Texas A&M on Thursday before playing at Oklahoma on Sunday.
