Three quick takeaways after Tennessee’s 90-50 over UT Martin
Knoxville, Tenn. – Despite the quick turnaround for the Lady Vols, they brought the energy, looked sharp, and the rebounding certainly improved from game one. That effort led to Tennessee capturing its second win of the season with a 90-50 final against UT Martin.
First Takeaway: Physicality is the difference
The physicality that this team plays with could be its greatest asset. It proved to be the difference maker in this game.
The Lady Vols captured 48 points off of forced turnovers, which accounted for 53 percent of its total points.
Part of those turnovers came courtesy of 18 steals by the Lady Vols.
One steal in particular in the second half may have been one of the better on the night. With about 5 minutes left in the third quarter, Ruby Whitehorn got in the pocket of Abby Stephens early in the press, swiped the ball, and finished with a nice layup.
During that time it almost seemed like Whitehorn was calling her number to guard the in-bounds pass in the second half. After the game, I asked her if gives her added motivation to be that first line of defense to try and come up with a turnover.
“Personally, I like just being on the ball. I’m a lot more active, I can see the rotator a lot better. It just helps me make sure I’m doing my job. And it helps me talk to my teammates to make sure they’re doing their job, too,” said Whitehorn.
There were several stretches where the lady Vols were out-right dominant.
They forced 6 turnovers over the last 6:08 of the first quarter, contributing to a 3:55 scoring drought for UT Martin to close the quarter. Same time, Tennessee went on a 14-2 run over 5 minutes.
To open the second half, Tennessee forced 3 turnovers in 1:36 of play same time went on a 6-0 run.
Similar to game one, the Lady Vols forced another 10-second violation.
In a humorous exchange from the Lady Vols’ perspective, Tess Darby and Jill Hollingshead brought intense pressure near halfcourt trapping one of the Skyhawks which resulted in the violation.
The Skyhawk looked over at her coach, threw her hands up, and said, “What am I supposed to do?!”
Then once Tennessee got the ball, Whitehorn quickly made a jumper to extend their early lead 27-13 with 7:34 left in second-half.
Second Takeaway: The scoring left a bit to be desired.
The Lady Vols finished 39% and 23% shooting from the field and the three-point line.
The three-point shooting got worse as the game wore on, as they only registered 9 makes on 39 tries. They shot 29% from three against Samford but that was on 34 attempts.
However, a lot of their shots were on goal. Just again rushed.
That led to several scoring droughts, but again defense is the difference for this team and that’s what ended those droughts.
Like when Talaysia Cooper had steal and score with 2:30 to go in the first quarter.
Kim Caldwell highlighted that despite the quick turnaround, she almost anticipated a poor night of shooting because of how they looked in practice the day before.
Not good.
Third takeaway: Rebounding is better
Tennessee dominated on the boards against UT Martin.
Tennessee converted for 33 points off its rebounds, 32 points came from second-chance efforts.
The margin was a lot wider as compared to game one, 58 to UT Martins 28.
Tennessee had more offensive rebounds, 33, than the Skyhawks had total rebounds.
Whitehorn contributes that to being more in sync and having better timing.
Fun Note: Sinking a Trey
Redshirt freshman, Kaniya Boyd knocked down her first triple as a Lady Vol.
As it swooshed through the net, the Lady Vols’s bench erupted!
Against Samford, Boyd was 0-1 from three, she finished 1-3 against UT Martin.
Her first three came from the top of the arc with about eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
“It’s exciting to see anybody hit a three, but especially a freshman,” said Sara Puckett. “You know, that’s her first three-pointer here and so that was just really cool to be able to see. She just gives us a whole lot of energy, so to be able to give it back to her in that moment, I think is what we were thinking, was just really exciting.”