KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Wednesday night the Lady Volunteers of The University of Tennessee hosted a home basketball game against an opponent Stetson Hatters at home. Thompson-Boling Arena is one great place for a college basketball game to take place and a total of 6,916 people were in attendance to the watch the Lady Volunteers.
The final score of the game lead to the outcome of a 65-55 win in favor of the Lady Volunteers. The first half of the game was not very pretty for Lady Volunteers who were trailing 22-38 at the halftime break after being down 15-23 at the end of just the first quarter.
“It was a tale of two halves. Our defense the first two quarters was non-existent. Our offense was stagnant, we turned the ball over too many times on three-second calls, so, we have got to get off to a better start,” said coach Holly Warlick. “But our team is resilient, we made some corrections at halftime and they made defense a priority.”
The Hatters hot shooting made it difficult for the Lady Volunteers to gain much of any momentum during the first half. The Hatters were much more accurate with their shooting in the first half going 51.72% from FG, 44.44% from 3PT, and 100% from FT compared to the Lady Volunteers 40.91% from FG, 12.5% from 3PT, and 50% from FT. It took approximately seven minutes for the Lady Volunteers to score their first field goal in the second quarter. Until that point, they had a few points off of free throws. They only attempted nine total shots, scoring on just two of them.
The second half and specifically the third quarter were a whole different story for the Lady Volunteers who finally turned their luck around.
“They really amped up their pressure,” Stetson guard Addi Walters said. “It kind of spooked us a little bit.”
The largest lead of the game was when the Hatters were up by a wide margin of 20 points. After only shooting 3-6 shots at the FT line in the first half the Lady Volunteers shot a whopping 22-24 from the FT line in the second half. This massive number of trips to the FT line was the major key factor in gaining back the lead and securing it all the way through the end of the game.
“Just getting in extra reps, this whole team has been shooting extra free throw shots every week,” said Lady Volunteer Rennia Davis. “So, I think that those reps have paid off for us so far.” Evina Westbook shot 51.3 percent from the line as a freshman last season. “I really, really have been working on my free throws,” remarked Westbrook. “I wasn’t happy with my free throw shooting last year and so I shoot all the time after practice. So, it’s just been me working on it. I’m glad I made them tonight.”
Both the Lady Volunteers and Hatters had two stand out players in terms of total points scored. Freshman guard Sarah Sagerer tallied 19 points and junior guard Addi Walters scored 17 points. For the Lady Volunteers sophomore guard Evina Westbrook put up 20 points and sophomore guard Rennia Davis scored 24 points while also leading the game in rebounds with 9.
“We tried to forget how not as good the first half was,” Davis said. “We knew we could play better. Just getting out there in the second half and competing, and playing defense, and playing Tennessee basketball, that’s just all we were focused on.”
Both teams were almost even when it came to points in the paint with the Lady Volunteers totaling 28 and the Hatters scoring 30. Second chance points were a key statistic that helped the Lady Volunteers win as well more than doubling the Hatters 6 points with 15 of their own.
Warlick said the status of Kasi Kushkituah continues to be a “day-to-day decision.”
The sophomore center missed a second consecutive game with a knee injury and appeared to be wearing a brace on her left knee. She was wearing a warm-up suit while sitting on UT’s bench during the game.
The Lady Volunteers will take on No. 12 Texas on Sunday in Austin, Texas at 1 P.M. ET and will air on ESPN 2.
“Texas is good,” Warlick said. “Very athletic, we always have a pretty tough game with them. I think two similar teams — athletic, run the ball, rely on defense, rely on rebounding. It’ll be a challenge.”
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