Tennessee and Vanderbilt meet for the second time this season in the second round of the SEC Tournament
Greenville, SC. – The Lady Vols captured a much-needed and desired win on the opening day of the SEC Tournament. After going 0-2 to end the regular season, a 77-37 victory over Texas A&M gave the Lady Vols a little bit of breathing room.
Now they have to quickly turn their attention to Vanderbilt, who they face Thursday morning at 11:00 in the second round of the conference tournament.
A chance for the Lady Vols to exact some revenge and further prove that the end of the regular season was a fluke.
Lady Vols’ Ruby Whitehorn said how they do that is by keeping the focus on the Orange and White.
“It’s very exciting,” said Whitehorn. “But I mean, we’re in this game for us, we’re in this tournament for us. We gone play Tennessee basketball and Vanderbilt is going to do what they go to do, but we’re just going to be us.”
In the first meeting, Tennessee saw a rare quarter in which they only put up single-digit points in the second quarter. Somehow, the Lady Vols nearly overcame that 5-point quarter by outscoring the Commodores in the final two frames. However, it was too little too late and they fell by one point, 71-70 loss in Nashville.
“We just feel like we’re the underdogs,” said Zee Spearman. “We want to be the hardest working team out here.”
As Tennessee looks to build on its Wednesday win, maintaining the focus they practiced and played with is vital.
“I definitely think it is,” said Jewel Spear. “We had two tough losses back-to-back, but we stayed together as a team, which is very important in March when it’s win or go home.”
It’ll be a tall task when No. 9 Tennessee and No. 8 Vanderbilt clash again, as the Commodores have two players averaging 20+ points a game in Khamil Pierre and Mikayla Blakes. They’re winners of their last two regular season games, putting up 90+ in both contests.