Following the conclusion of Tennessee’s early signing period in football and Rick Barnes’ team losing to Cincinnati, the 23rd-ranked Lady Vols fell to No. 1 Stanford 78-51 on the road.
In Tennessee’s first of two games on the west coast, Rennia Davis led the Lady Vols (8-2) with 14 points and six rebounds. Freshman point guard Jordan Horston chipped in nine points and five boards in the losing effort.
“There’s a great opportunity for us to learn and to mature a little bit,” Lady Vols head coach Kellie Harper said following the game. “There are areas we need to grow as a team.”
Ultimately, Stanford (10-0) won by 27 points, but the Lady Vols kept the game within striking distance for much of the first half. Davis scored the first five points of the game to give Tennessee an early 5-3 lead. The two teams swapped buckets through the media timeout, but Stanford came out of the timeout and promptly went on a 10-0 run to end the first quarter. The Cardinal led 20-12 at the end of the first frame.
In the second quarter, Tennessee cut the Stanford lead to five midway through the frame, but the Lady Cardinal still managed to push their lead to 10 — 34-24 — heading into halftime. Following intermission, it was all downhill from that point for UT.
Stanford outscored the Lady Vols 44-27 in the second half to hand them their second loss of the season. Over the final 20 minutes, Tennessee shot 30.3 percent from the field, was 2-of-9 from the 3-point line, and was 8-for-15 from the free throw line. The Lady Vols tallied just seven assists for the game.
For the Cardinal, they were paced by 19 points from junior Kiana Williams, who also had seven assists. Sophomore Lexie Hull chipped in 11 points, and freshman Ashten Pretchel scored 10, respectively.
Tennessee now turns its attention to its second match-up on the west coast, a date with Portland State (6-3) on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. The game will be available for streaming via Pluto TV Ch. 532.
