Alabama Tops Florida On The Road
Tennessee improved to 14-1 (3-0 SEC) Thursday night, dominating No. 25 Texas A&M, 73-45, at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The Lady Vols trailed, 21-20, at the end of the first quarter before suffocating the Aggies the rest of the game. Texas A&M scored just 24 points in the second through fourth quarter including a seven-point second quarter and a three-point fourth quarter.
Tennessee center Tamari Key spearheaded the Lady Vols’ dominant defense, blocking a career high 11 shots.
“I knew I had a lot. I didn’t realize that I had hit double digits,” Key said. “I was not aware of the 12 blocked shots single-game record. I’m just glad that we were able to get stops on defense today. I feel like we got a lot of points off the boards today with our defense.”
Tennessee bolstered balance scoring in the game including three players scoring nine points. It was junior guard Jordan Horston that carried the load for the Lady Vols’ offensively. After struggling in her return from sickness, Horston scored a game high 18 points, adding 13 rebounds and five assists.
“Well, I think for us, one of the things that she does when she’s more aggressive offensively, I think her turnovers tend to go down a little bit,” Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper said. “So we want her to stay aggressive. I thought she played well. I thought what she did tonight, I felt like she was involved in about every play. You know, you look up, Jordan (Horston) is involved on both ends of the court. I thought she guarded; she obviously rebounded really well. She was aggressive offensively. She was finding her teammates. I thought she was just all over the place tonight, and I think that’s really good for her. The more active that we can get her, the better we’re going to be.”
The win keeps Tennessee perfect in SEC play as they head into two game road trip to Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.
