Kellie Harper and the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team had one of their most resilient wins of the season on Monday night in Knoxville.
The Lady Vols’ backs were against the wall coming out of the Auburn game after suffering just their second loss of the season. And for the majority of the game on Monday against Arkansas, the same looked to be true.
Arkansas held the lead over the 7th-ranked Lady Vols for the first three quarters of the game. In the second quarter, the Razorbacks’ lead grew all the way up to 11, but settled at nine by the half. Then, in the fourth quarter of the game, Tennessee came alive. After spending the first 32 minutes of the game trailing, Rae Burrell’s layup in transition finally gave Tennessee a lead with eight minutes left in the game.
Those eight minutes were anything but one-sided, though, as both Arkansas and Tennessee continued trading buckets. With Tennessee leading by two points in the final six seconds of the game, Arkansas’ leading scorer Amber Ramirez was sent to the line and hit both free throws.
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In the final five-minutes of overtime, Tennessee’s grit and toughness, words used by coach Harper after the game, helped Tennessee outscore Arkansas 11-8 and complete the comeback overtime conference victory. The Lady Vols won by a score of 86 to 83.
Tennessee's strong defense on the final play gave the Lady Vols a huge comeback win in overtime on Monday night.#LadyVols pic.twitter.com/TTAN5D9jOr
— Ric Butler (@Ric_Butler) February 1, 2022
After the game, Harper met with the media in Knoxville as she gave her reaction to the team’s big win. In addition to complimenting the Thompson-Boling Arena fans, Harper also spoke about her team’s will to win in the second half and how they can still improve moving forward.
In addition to Harper, Tennessee’s Rae Burrell, Jordan Horston, and Sara Puckett also met with the media in the postgame presser as each player spoke about the intense game that had just been played.
The Lady Vols will return to action this Thursday when they take on Florida in Gainesville.
