Lady Vols Add Standout Guard Spencer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee women's basketball head coach Kim Caldwell announced Monday that she has received an SEC Grant-in-Aid (GIA) and Institutional Financial Aid Agreement (IFAA) from transfer Samara Spencer (pronounced suh-MARE-uh), who was the 2022 SEC Freshman of the Year.

The 5-foot-7 guard, who started 97 of 101 games over the past three seasons at Arkansas, is a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and a product of St. Thomas Aquinas High School. Spencer will be a senior during the 2024-25 campaign. She is the third player to sign out of the transfer portal with the Lady Vols under Caldwell, following 6-2 forward Alyssa Latham (Syracuse) and 6-4 forward Lazaria Spearman (Miami).

"We are very pleased that Samara has chosen to join the Lady Vol family," Caldwell said. "In addition to her abilities on the offensive and defensive ends of the court, she brings a wealth of experience playing in the Southeastern Conference that should benefit our program greatly. We welcome her to our team and can't wait to see the impact she can make."

In her three playing seasons with the Razorbacks, Spencer accumulated 1,368 career points along with 406 rebounds, 365 assists, 149 three-pointers and 120 steals. She ranked 16th on the Arkansas career scoring list and was 10th all-time in assists. Her averages included 13.5 ppg., 4.0 rpg., 3.6 apg. and 1.2 spg. during her time in Fayetteville.

Spencer paced UA in assists in each of the past three seasons and was second in points per game the past two years and third as a freshman. She was second in steals by Razorbacks in 2023-24 and was third in her first two seasons, and she was among the team's top four each campaign in three-pointers made, including second in 2021-22 and third in 2022-23.

In all, Spencer produced 73 games with double-figure scoring. She tallied 17 efforts of 20+ points and carded three double-doubles during her collegiate career.

Spencer started in all 33 contests in 2023-24, averaging 13.9 ppg., 4.6 rpg., 3.5 apg. and 1.3 spg. while leading the Razorbacks in assists (115), free throws made (128), free throws attempted (173) and free throw percentage (.740). She registered 26 double-digit scoring games and had nine contests with 5+ assists, six 20+-point games and one 30-point game. The latter was a 31-point, 14-rebound performance vs. Alabama on Jan. 14.

As a sophomore, Spencer started all 37 contests to tie a school record and put up 14.4 ppg., 4.2 apg., 3.8 rpg. and 1.1 spg. She led Arkansas in assists (154), minutes per game (33.9) and field goal attempts per game (12.4) and finished second on the team in scoring. She made several individual season top-10 lists, including No. 7 in total assists.

As a rookie in 2021-22, Spencer was named SEC Freshman of the Year and a member of the SEC All-Freshman Team after averaging 12.2 ppg., 3.7 rpg., 3.1 apg. and 1.2 spg. while logging 27 starts in 31 contests. She shot career highs of 42.5 percent from the field and 34 percent on threes, carding 20 games in double figures, including three games with 20+. Her efforts led to four SEC Player of the Week honors during the course of the campaign.

Spencer was the No. 72-ranked overall high school recruit by Blue Star at the time of her signing. She was named Broward County's 7A-6A Player of the Year in 2021 and All-Broward County First Team while leading St. Thomas Aquinas to a state title during her senior season. She also led the Raiders to the state title game during her sophomore season and helped guide Fort Myers to a state title during her freshman year as the sixth woman with that program before moving to Aquinas.

University of Tennessee Athletics

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