Lady Vols basketball 'played scared,' unable to fight off Ole Miss' will on defense
OXFORD, Miss. — Pat Summitt's spirit was felt even as the Lady Vols basketballl team lost to Ole Miss on Sunday.
When the final buzzer sounded at SJB Pavilion in Ole Miss' 80-75 win, coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin got emotional. It was her first win over Tennessee since she was hired in 2018 and only the third time in the past three decades the Rebels beat the program built by Summitt.
McPhee-McCuin considered the legendary Lady Vols coach a mentor from afar, even though she didn't play for her.
"I have so much love for Pat Summitt's legacy," she said. "I had never seen a woman coach until I saw Pat Summitt . . . Every time we play Tennessee, I swear I feel Pat's spirit."
Summitt's spirit was reflected more in the Rebels as well, outrebounding Tennessee 38-30 — 14 of which were offensive. They were grittier on defense. They made the tough shots and didn't play scared. They became the aggressors after falling behind early. The Lady Vols let them. Defense wins games, Summitt's famous mantra goes, and Tennessee's wasn't good enough.
"We didn't really handle the storm as best we could, and we played scared for a lot of the game," senior point guard Jasmine Powell said. "That's not what we do here . . . (we need to) readjust our mentality, because we need to be the aggressor moving forward."
One of the only players who was consistently aggressive was senior guard Jewel Spear, who scored a season-high 30 points on 64.7% shooting.
She went 4-for-8 from 3-point range, hit midrange jumpers and made some of the toughest layups of the season, but Tennessee's defense couldn't get the stops to make her work count. She also was one of the Lady Vols' best defenders Sunday, one of her biggest plays coming from a steal-and-score that resulted in an and-1 play.
But team defense has been Tennessee's Achilles' heel all season, and it killed the Lady Vols against a fast, athletic Ole Miss team. They gave up 80 points against the Rebels, who were averaging 65.5 points in SEC play. They allowed 18 points in transition and 44 total in the paint.
"I was wanting to see a stronger defensive effort the whole game," Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper said. "We've know we've got to be better. We've got to handle that physicality and that aggressiveness better . . . We scored 75 points and that should be good enough."
Tennessee tried to come back after Ole Miss took the lead, cutting the deficit several times in the second half. The Lady Vols fought through a physical game with few foul calls on either side, and even cut the gap to one point with a minute and a half left. But they couldn't execute defensively down the stretch.
A key aspect of Ole Miss' win was limiting star forward Rickea Jackson to only two of her 15 points in the second half. And with the limited whistles in a physical game, Jackson didn't get to the free-throw line once.
"I thought it was physical in the paint for her," Harper said. "We were trying different lineups to help open things up for her. And look, they did a great job, no doubt about it. They can guard, and I thought their size affected us."
Tennessee went 2-2 in a crucial stretch against tournament-projected teams. The Lady Vols need to right the ship quickly if they want to secure their spot in the postseason, and they need to start with their defense.
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Lady Vols basketball unable to fight off Ole Miss' will on defense
