KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Candace Parker scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help No. 2 Tennessee beat in-state rival Vanderbilt 79-63 on Sunday.
Shannon Bobbitt added 14 points for the Lady Vols while Alexis Hornbuckle and Alex Fuller both had 10.
Vanderbilt failed to score in the first 3:15 of the game as Tennessee jumped out to an 8-0 lead. The Lady Vols (16-1, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) entered halftime with a 37-24 lead.
The Commodores (13-6, 2-2) cut the Lady Vols lead to 21-18 with 5:47 left on a Christina Wirth layup, but Tennessee broke out with a 16-6 run ending as Hornbuckle hit a layup underneath the basket with 22 seconds before the half.
The Lady Vols held their double-digit lead throughout the second half with the help of free throw shooting. Tennessee, a 73.1 percent free throw shooting team, made 18 of 23 attempts while Vanderbilt only sank three of nine attempts.
Wirth kept Vanderbilt from suffering a worse deficit with her 3-point shooting, going 6-for-10 from behind the arc. She finished with 24 points, and freshman Hannah Tuomi had 10 points and 11 rebounds for her first career double-double.
Tennessee capitalized on Vanderbilt's mistakes, scoring 29 points off 24 turnovers.
The Lady Vols also used their size to control the Commodores, scoring 38 points in the paint and grabbing 39 rebounds to Vanderbilt's 33. At one point, the 6-foot-4 Parker simply took the ball out of 5-foot-11 Jence Rhoads' hands as she held it above her head.
Vanderbilt, which ranks as the SEC's best field goal shooting team and averages 48.4 percent, only shot 34.5 percent from the field in the first half.
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