University of Tennessee Athletics
Lady Vols Make A Statement
March 06, 2015 | Women's Basketball
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
-- Holly Warlick said in the build up to the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament that her Tennessee squad was a team on a mission.Rarely has a team come out and illustrated a coach's point more clearly than the Lady Vols did on Friday night at Verizon Arena.
Tennessee exploded out of the gate with a 19-0 run early in the opening half and never looked back en route to a 75-41 win over the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal.
"Just a great effort by our basketball team," said Warlick. "We talked about just doing everything. This team, we want them to make a statement. We talk a lot about it. We talk a lot about playing in the moment and playing the game. We don't look ahead. We don't look behind us."
The Lady Vol effort was not just about scoring points, which the team did in bunches all night long. It was about a defensive effort that limited Georgia to 11 points in the first half, including a stretch where UT held the Bulldogs scoreless on 11 consecutive possessions.
"It's something we pride ourselves on, something we worked a lot on this entire year," Ariel Massengale said. "For me, myself, to do something about that, to be able to make that happen in the game, it's very comforting. It is very rewarding to know that our hard work is paying off in practice."
Tennessee's frontcourt had to step up as well on both ends of the court. A unit that had struggled to fully form its identity in the absence of All-American forward Isabelle Harrison over the past four games dominated the points in the paint, 44-12.
It is a stat even more impressive considering Georgia had outscored Tennessee in the paint, 22-20, just eight days ago when the teams met in Athens.
"Those are the things we talk about, that are points in the paint," Warlick said. "We've been giving up a lot of points in the paint because of not rebounding and boxing out. We spent a lot of time on it this week, talked about it, emphasized it until they were probably sick of hearing about it. But it paid off. It paid off."
It paid off rebounding the basketball as well. UT had an eye-popping 47-23 edge on the boards and virtually eliminated second-chance points for UGA by pulling down 33 defensive rebounds to just nine offensive boards for the Bulldogs.
Combined with an effective press that Warlick called off before halftime to conserve energy with another tough test coming Saturday night, the relentless effort made the statement UT was looking for. The next challenge for the Lady Vols is to bring it again in the semifinal.
"I wouldn't trade our team for anybody," Warlick said. "Making a statement means that someone needs to fear to play against you, you play hard, you're relentless. That's the stuff we want to make sure that we know when we leave the floor, they say, `That is a typical Tennessee team that laid it all out there. They went after loose balls. They played as hard as a team can play.'"
