Florida State went on a 23-4 run enroute to a 30 point third quarter
Knoxville, Tenn. – The Lady Vols overcome a disastrous third quarter to defeat Florida State 79-77.
Kim Calwell’s Lady Vols entered half time up 45-27 and held Florida State’s leading scorer, Ta’Niya Latson to just 12 points.
Tennessee’s largest lead was 20 points powered by a 13-0 run in the final minutes of the second quarter. However a made layup by Noles’ Makayla Timpson cut their deficit to 18 points.
Out of half time, the game was flipped on its head.
Three things to know following Tennessee’s first power conference win of the season.
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How Tennessee overcame a disastrous third quarter
It was an outright ugly third quarter, one that saw a 18 point lead for Tennessee quickly vanish.
In the opening minutes of the period, FSU went on an 11-0 run capped by a steal and fast break three pointer by Latson.
Their run would continue until they overtook the lead with a steal and fast break layup by O’mariah Gordon to make it 53-52 at the 3:03 mark.
FSU’s head coach, Brooke Wyckoff said it came down to getting stops on the defensive end.
In 10 minutes, they had 11 defensive boards, 4 blocks, three steals, enroute to a 30 point quarter.
The only other time FSU’s stats were anywhere near this, was the first quarter when they had 10 defensive rebounds.
During the postgame press conference and following the win, Kim Caldwell brought some humor when she recalled a conversation she had with her gramma.
“Not a great win, but we’ll take it,” said Caldwell. “Nothing like blowing an 18 point lead. My grandma texted and said what happened and I said it was a terrible halftime speech. We have a lot to learn from this one. I think we needed it. We needed a test and the more you can get tested early, the better you’ll be going into conference [play] and that’s what all of your non-conference schedule is about.”
However in the moment, there was only frustration on the bench.
Deservingly so.
That frustration led to a very rare timeout call by Caldwell.
In the midst of FSU’s run, it appeared they were just merely capitalizing on lack of effort, urgency, and focus by Tennessee.
Take for example when Talaysia Cooper’s trying to set the offense, she takes her focus off Latson and #00 takes advantage.
Latson gets the steal and a fast break layup to cut in Tennessee’s lead, 49-42.
On Latson’s fastbreak, hustle and urgency to try and defend was no where on the radar.
So, Caldwell calls the timeout and immediately walks to Cooper, getting after her for lack of focus.
“We weren’t getting any stops. So what was fueling our offense and our transition in the first two quarters was we were getting stops and we were getting scores. We weren’t getting any stops. So we were having to take the ball out and we were slow, we weren’t hitting shots, we weren’t playing as hard. So, it was just a multitude of terrible things,” said Caldwell.
After the game, Cooper said of course she doesn’t like getting yelled at but it helped her reset.
“Coach Kim is always on me. I don’t like getting yelled at, but I know how to take it. And it just fueled me to go do better. And that shows me that she cares and that I know I can play better than I was playing in the first half. So, I just had to calm down and play to my game,” said Cooper.
Once they started getting defensive stops and were able to set the offense, the game started to become more manageable.
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Talaysia Cooper is a game changer.
FSU’s coach said she is absolutely worth the price of admission.
Cooper got in foul trouble early, so she didn’t get as many minutes as she probably would’ve otherwise.
Instead she was kind of subbed in and out for match ups and key moments, and she delivered in that aspect.
Look at the fourth quarter production. A quarter where Caldwell said the “game was going to come down to who played the hardest.”
When Tennessee needed an answer Cooper had one.
12 points, 3 boards, 1 block in 9 minutes of play.
She was able to have that fourth quarter because she got out of that frustration she was feeling in the third quarter.
“I appreciate the fact that she could handle it and be resilient, and keep playing,” said Caldwell. “(Cooper) was frustrated. She was frustrated that she was frustrated and she got over it.”
If not, who knows where this game could’ve gone.
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This is a resilient group.
Alyssa Latham said what she learned about the team is that they aren’t going to stop playing.
“We’re a very resilient team,” said Latham. “I feel like that’s what tonight showed. We’re just here to play basketball and we’re to have fun. We enjoy being together. Like you can see we have a lot of chemistry, we have fun while we’re playing and so it’s going to be a really great season”
After blowing a 20 point lead, there were plenty of reasons to give up and pout but they didn’t do that.
The game flipped in the fourth. After FSU’s 30-point third quarter, they were held to a 20-point fourth.
At the same time, following Tennessee’s 12-point third they put together a 22-point fourth.
Doing so with just two Lady Vols recording buckets; Cooper and Zee Spearman.
Cooper accounted for 12 and Spearman had the other 10 including the eventual game-winning jumper to make it 79-77.
Which led Latham to say what she learned about the team was, “we’re some dogs.”
“I learned that we are resilient but she still don’t understand pace and for us 18 points is nothing, 20 points is nothing, 22 points is nothing. It can be made up in a quarter nad it cane be blown in a quarte,” said Caldwell.
It’s also a great teaching moment, because Caldwell said she tells her team constantly no lead is safe and she hoped they learned that Wednesday night.
Next up, the Shark Beauty Women’s Champions Classic where they’ll take on Iowa in Brooklyn, New York on Saturday at 7:00 pm.
