The Lady Vols had never lost to Mississippi State, holding a perfect 35-0 record against the Bulldogs, coming into Sunday’s matchup.
Cierra Burdick made sure that didn’t change.
The senior forward scored a career-high 24 points, as No. 6 Tennessee defeated No. 18 Mississippi State, 79-67, extending the Lady Vols’ dominance of the Bulldogs to 36 games while giving Tennessee its best start in conference play since the 2010-2011 season.
Burdick’s impact went beyond scoring, however, as she recorded eight rebounds, six assists and three steals in a complete performance.
“I feel like I’m capable of doing multiple things on the offensive end,” Burdick said. “I think what got me rolling is I was able to get some assists early to my teammates, and when they’re hitting that helps me. And I’ve just been playing with a lot of passion and energy.”
After taking a five-point lead into the locker room, Tennessee (19-3, 9-0 SEC) was able to take control of the game early in the second half, out scoring the Bulldogs 23-13 over the first seven minutes of the second period.
Burdick and forward Bashaara Graves played key roles in that span, scoring 19 of those 23 points by themselves as the Lady Vols hit 11 of their first 12 shots in the second half.
Graves went on a personal 9-0 run during that stretch that allowed Tennessee to extend its lead to 15, thanks in large part to an increased effort on the defensive end.
“I think we started playing defense,” head coach Holly Warlick said. “And we got some transition looks and we got down the floor. We got the ball inside, we had 42 points in the paint. We talked a lot at halftime about getting the ball down and getting the rebound, getting stops.”
Graves finished with 17 points, making her the 40th Lady Vol to reach 1,000 points in her career. The junior also added four rebounds and five assists.
Freshman Victoria Vivians got off to a quick start for Mississippi State (22-3, 7-3), scoring 13 of her 17 points in the first half, but the Tennessee defense adjusted after the break as Vivians made only field goal in the second period.
“I think part of it was (Tennessee),” Bulldog head coach Vic Schaefer said. “She wasn’t able to get to the rim as much, and when she did she didn’t finish a couple things.”
Turnovers became a factor late in the game, as the Bulldogs scored 21 points off 15 Tennessee turnovers.
Mississippi State was able to battle back, and Kendra Grant hit a pull-up jumper off of an out-of-bounds play, capping off a 9-0 run with 3:19 left in the game, and cutting the Lady Vols’ lead to just five points.
Harrison quickly answered with a layup, and then it was Burdick again who was able to ice the game, as the senior hit four consecutive free throws to push the Lady Vols lead back to double-digits.
“I thought today we showed great maturity,” Warlick said. “We could have gotten folded and felt sorry for ourselves. We missed two free throws and we missed some layups, but you can always go back and get stops on the other end and so I thought we were pretty positive and we stayed pretty focused on what we needed to do.”
