University of Tennessee Athletics
A Senior Effort To Replace Harrison
February 19, 2015 | Women's Basketball
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Holly Warlick said Tennessee needed to make a statement against Alabama on Thursday night, in its first game without Isabelle Harrison.
With a meeting with South Carolina, the Southeastern Conference's only other undefeated team in conference play on the horizon, the statement came through loud and clear.
"We talked about this being a statement game and just playing hard," Warlick said after her team's 77-56 win over the Crimson Tide. "We played hard in the Kentucky game and we wanted to carry that over to tonight and I thought we did some really good things."
Tennessee felt that it needed the game to gel together after losing Harrison moments after halftime against Kentucky. But the Lady Vols also wanted to show that rumors of their season's demise had been greatly exaggerated.
"People are doubting us saying we're out of the running and Tennessee's off the map now," Cierra Burdick said. "We just use that as motivation. It's all noise right now. We've just got to continue to play our basketball.
"We dearly miss Izzy. I love that girl to death and she's been our catalyst all season but we've got to do this for her. We've got to do this for ourselves. We are more than capable of doing it. We're just going to continue to show the naysayers by our actions."
Burdick and fellow senior Ariel Massengale would be the key to making the statement, just as they were in the second half of the Lady Vols' win over Kentucky on Sunday after Harrison went out of the lineup. The pair combined for 32 points in UT's win over the Wildcats and backed it up by scoring 33 between them against the Crimson Tide.
Massengale led the way against Alabama with 17 points. All five of her field goals were from 3-point range.
Burdick scored 16 and led the Lady Vols with nine rebounds.
"I think it was good for us," Massengale said of the performance. "I think Nia [Moore] did a good job establishing herself in the paint, Bashaara [Graves] as well. Everyone just has to do a little bit more."
The message of doing just a little bit more was one set out by the head coach, and taken to heart by the players.
"I told them in the locker room, Izzy is 13 points in the SEC and nine rebounds," Warlick said. "I'm not expecting Cierra to make-up 13 points for Izzy. I'm not expecting Bashaara to get nine rebounds. It is by committee. We went through and each of them had to score two more extra points. Some two points, some one rebound to take up the slack for what Izzy has done."
The next test of the team's growth and resolve comes against the Gamecocks in Columbia on Monday night.
"It's definitely a game that we've had circled on our calendars and we're looking forward to it," Massengale said.
