Score Settled: Lady Vols Avenge 2023 Loss, Surge Past MTSU

Credit: University of Tennessee Athletics

By Dawson Wise

The new-look Lady Vols have passed their first test.

Middle Tennessee State is a perennial NCAA tournament team under veteran head coach Rick Insell. The Blue Raiders have won 27 or more games each of the last 3 seasons. This game was never going to be easy.

Despite that, Kim Caldwell's team came away with an underrated statement win against MTSU 89-75.

There’s still a mentality of no one "star" player on the team. UT had several key contributors affect the game, with both holdover veterans and transfers pitching in. We'll get to those statlines towards the end of this recap.

Eventually, this team was going to see its resilience tested, it passed the first test with flying colors.

It never looked defeated. It kept up the pressure on defense, hustled for rebounds, and made sure it got the shots to fall. If that trend continues into conference play, this could be a very special group.

With that said, let's go through the stats for each quarter of the game, along with a highlight from each that had the most impact on the game.

First Quarter

Score: Tennessee 23, MTSU 18.

FG: Tennessee 8-22 (36%), MTSU 8-15 (53%).

3P: Tennessee 4-12 (33%), MTSU 0-2 (0%).

Rebounds: Tennessee 14, MTSU 8.

Turnovers: Tennessee 3, MTSU 6.

Highlight: Arkansas transfer Samara Spencer got off to a lightning fast start, hitting all four of the Lady Vols' threes in the opening quarter to give her 13 after just 10 minutes.

Second Quarter

Score: Tennessee 41, MTSU 30.

FG (2Q): Tennessee 6-16 (37%), MTSU 5-13 (38%).

3P (2Q): Tennessee 4-11 (36%), MTSU 4-12 (33%).

Rebounds (2Q): Tennessee 9, MTSU 11.

Turnovers (2Q): Tennessee 3, MTSU 6.

Highlight: A late flurry of threes saw Sara Puckett (6) and Zee Spearman (3) combine for nine points in the final moments of the half as the Lady Vol lead ballooned from four to 11.

Third Quarter

Score: Tennessee 67, MTSU 57.

FG (3Q): Tennessee 8-23 (35%), MTSU 8-12 (67%).

3P (3Q): Tennessee 1-10 (10%), MTSU 2-3 (67%).

Rebounds (3Q): Tennessee 13, MTSU 6.

Turnovers (3Q): Tennessee 4, MTSU 5.

Highlight: Two moments kept the lead intact for Tennessee. Talaysia Cooper came to life in this frame, scoring 10 of her points on the night in the third. This, along with a technical foul against MTSU, allowed the Lady Vols to remain in control.

Fourth Quarter

Score: Tennessee 89, MTSU 75.

FG (4Q): Tennessee 8-12 (67%), MTSU 7-11 (64%).

3P (4Q): Tennessee: 6-9 (67%), MTSU 1-3 (33%).

Rebounds (4Q): Tennessee 4, MTSU 6.

Turnovers (4Q): Tennessee 4, MTSU 5.

Highlight: Tess Darby bookended the quarter with threes, her final triple putting the game out of reach for the Blue Raiders.

Overall Stats

Score: Tennessee 89, MTSU 75.

FG: Tennessee 30-73 (41%), MTSU 28-51 (55%).

3P: Tennessee 15-42 (36%), MTSU 4-12 (33%).

Rebounds: Tennessee 40, MTSU 31.

Turnovers: Tennessee 14, MTSU 22.

Points off TO: Tennessee 29, MTSU 13.

Paint Points: Tennessee 24, MTSU 44.

Second Chance: Tennessee 13, MTSU 9.

Fast Breaks: Tennessee 23, MTSU 17.

Bench: Tennessee 33, MTSU 6.

Notable Scorers:

Tennessee: Cooper-18, Spencer-17, Darby-14, Puckett-13, Whitehorn-9.

MTSU: Courtney Blakely-25, Anastasiia Boldyreva-18, Jalynn Gregory/Ta'mia Scott-13, Jada Grannum-6.

Takeaways

This was not the prettiest win for Tennessee, but that was to be expected. Not every game was going to be like the first few.

Offensively, the looks are there. Tennessee does a good job moving the ball and finding the open shooters, but the execution is not quite there.

Still, the ability to win the offensive rebounding aspect of the game and find second chance points means this offense continues to hum. The confidence of this team to continue to press is encouraging as well.

The shots will fall eventually.

Defensively, this group is impressive.

It’s changing the game by pressing and forcing turnovers, much like Tim Banks' group does for the football Vols.

They fly around the court, making their opponent make bad decisions and then converting those to offense.

I liked the defensive effort, especially against a good offensive unit. They are going to cause problems for future conference opponents. Overall, it's another foundational win for Kim Caldwell and the Lady Vols as they continue to roll toward SEC play.

You can find the postgame press conference highlights on my X feed (@DawsonWiseFSK).

Next Up

Tennessee takes on Liberty on Saturday afternoon at 12 PM EST, on SEC Network+.