Saturday, December 14, 2013

#3 Tennessee 103, Troy 64

The Lady Vols put up a season-high 103 points behind six double-digit scoring efforts in a 103-64 thrashing of Troy Saturday afternoon in front of 11,358 people at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The 103 points were the most since a 110-45 victory over Alabama on January 6, 2011 while the six players with 10+ points marked the first time since March 8, 2013 vs. Florida in the SEC Tournament.

With the win, the Lady Vols improve to 9-0, the first time the UT has begun the season winning the first nine games since 2009-10. Tennessee has now won 12-straight home games.

The Lady Vols are now 1-0 all-time vs. Troy winning the inaugural meeting between the two teams.

Meighan Simmons and Bashaara Graves led the way with 16 points each, while Cierra Burdick, after tallying just two points in the first half, finished with 15, Isabelle Harrison had 13 and Nia Moore and Mercedes Russell each had 10.

Moore, Harrison, Burdick and Jasmine Jones each finished with double-digit rebound efforts tallying 13, 12, 10, and 10 each as Tennessee recorded the second-most rebounds in school history with 74, the most since 1988.

Harrison recorded her second double-double of the season, eighth career, Burdick notched her first double-double on the year and seventh career and Moore had her first career double-double on the night.

The three double-doubles by Lady Vols marked the sixth time in history that Tennessee has achieved the feat, the last coming vs. Florida on Feb. 26, 2006 when Candace Parker (34 pts, 15 rebs), Tye'sha Fluker (22 pts, 16 rebs) and Shanna Zolman (22 pts, 10 assts) did so.

Tennessee finished the game with a season-high 28 turnovers, the most since recording 31 vs. Kentucky last season.

The Lady Vols started the game off hitting a free throw off of an administrative technical foul as Troy did not get their line up in time and never looked back.

UT began the game on a 15-2 run fueled by five points by Isabelle Harrison and finished out the half on a 12-3 run thanks to four points each by Nia Moore and Meighan Simmons

Tennessee took a 49-28 lead into the locker room at half time scoring a season-high 49 points at the half, besting their 44 scored against Georgia Tech. The Lady Vols also took down a season-high 40 boards before halftime (33 vs. GT).

The 49 points were the most since the Lady Vols put up 49 vs. Alabama on Jan. 20, 2013.

However, Tennessee also turned the ball over 18 times, a first half high on the year.

Both Simmons and Graves tallied 10 points before the half while Harrison netted nine. Simmons notched her sixth double-digit effort of the season and 85th of her career while Graves tallied her fourth of the year, 34th career.

Harrison hit the double-digit mark on the first basket of the second half and less than three minutes into the second she completed the double-double, pulling down a defensive rebound.

Troy came out fighting in the second half, but the Lady Vols matched them point for point, eventually pulling away with less than 10 minutes remaining using a 16-0 run holding Troy scoreless for over five and a half minutes from 9:46- 4:01.

After scoring 16 today, Meighan Simmons now needs 12 points to move into 14th place all-time among UT scorers.

Tennessee has still not allowed an opponent to shoot better than 38% from the field this season as Troy finished with a 33.3 % shooting percentage.

The Lady Vols will continue their run of three games in eight days when they return home vs. Tennessee State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. followed by a trip across the country to face #6/4 Stanford on Dec. 21 at 4:30 p.m.

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