KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee women’s basketball stayed perfect in SEC play with an 88-81 win over Florida on Thursday night inside the Food City Center.
The Lady Vols held a 15-10 lead in the first quarter in large part to the scoring of Sara Puckett. She made three three-pointers during that stretch.
However, Florida went on a 9-0 run after that and held a 21-19 lead after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Gators went on another 9-0 run to start the quarter to get up 30-19. They’d get up by as many as 12 points. For the third straight game in SEC play, the Lady Vols trailed by double-digits.
UT quickly responded as Jewel Spear led the charge. Tennessee trailed 35-28 in the second quarter when Spear scored on a layup while getting fouls. She made the layup to cut the deficit to four points.
Later down 37-31, she scored on a jump shot to make it 37-33. Spear then forced a travel on the other end to get the ball back to UT. On the ensuing offensive possession, she dished an assist to Puckett who made a jumper to cut the lead to 37-35.
Spear would tie the game later on at 39-39 after she secured a rebound and got fouled on the other end. She converted both her free throws.
Then as the buzzer sounded for the end of the first half, she scored on a layup to once again tie the game at 43-43.
Tennessee retook the lead in the second half off a jump shot made by Spear, going up 47-46. The Lady Vols held a 61-57 lead heading into the fourth quarter as Rickea Jackson made a bucket right before time expired.
Tennessee was up 67-64 in the fourth quarter when Kaiya Wynn secured an offensive rebound and was fouled. She made both free throws to extend the lead. With 5:47 left in regulation, Puckett buried another three-pointer to put Tennessee up 72-64.
With UT up 74-66, Jasmine Powell found Jackson in transition to get the Lady Vols up double-digits making the score 76-66.
The Lady Vols closed it out to win. It’s the third SEC game in a row they’ve come back to win after trailing double-digits.
They improve to 3-0 in conference play. UT plays next on Sunday on the road against Texas A&M at 5 p.m. That game will be broadcast on ESPN.
