LEXINGTON, Ky.— As the game turned: With the shot clock winding down and Tennessee handling the basketball on an important possession, Andraya Carter banked in her pull up jumper with 2:03 left to give her team a 71-66 lead it would not relinquish.
“I heard my teammates kind of counting down on the shot clock and just let it fly,” Carter said. “I got across my defender and thought I was going to be able to get to the rim, but I looked up at the shot clock and pulled up and shot it. I just wanted a good look.”
Carter, referred to as the ‘defensive stopper,’ along with all of her starting teammates for the No. 6 Lady Vols finished with at least eight points.
Despite a slow start on offense, Holly Warlick’s team shot 18-of-30 in the second half and shot 48.3 percent Thursday night in Memorial Coliseum.
The win marked Tennessee’s first road win against a top-10 team since they defeated Duke 67-64 on Jan. 28, 2008. The win keeps Tennessee tied with South Carolina for first place in the SEC with an 8-0 record in conference play.
“This win means so much to me and our team,” Carter said. “I really wanted to get this win for our seniors. They do so much for us and they had never won here. This win does so much for everybody, especially for the players, our seniors, for former Lady Vols. It does something for everybody that wears orange and bleeds orange and white.”
Hot topic: Turnovers. Despite turning the ball over 22 times—with 14 from the senior trio of Ariel Massengale, Cierra Burdick and Isabelle Harrison—the Lady Vols came away with their sixth win over a ranked opponent this season.
Despite four turnovers in the first half, Burdick was much more efficient in the second half in which she scored 12 of her 16 points and only turned the ball over once.
Spotlight: Harrison reached a significant milestone on a terrific night from the field, as she scored a team-high 19 points on eight-of-12 shooting.
On her second made basket of the first half at the 10:28 mark, which was assisted by Jaime Nared, Harrison climbed over the 1,000 point career mark. She became the 39th Lady Vol in history to reach the milestone.
“I am just blessed that I was able to get to 1,000 points,” Harrison said. “I wouldn’t have been at this position if it wasn’t for my teammates. We’ve been through so many tough times and I’m glad they got to be here with me to experience it.”
Harrison finished with 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double and finished with two blocks.
The other guys: Makayla Epps put on a sensational performance. In the second half the sophomore guard for Kentucky scored 20 points and came close to keeping her team’s undefeated mark at home intact.
Epps connected on all three of her attempts from 3-point range, but would miss a potential go-ahead layup with 4.3 seconds left in the top-10 contest in front of a packed crowd of 7,407 fans.
Say something: Harrison’s thoughts after the win: “This win over Kentucky is amazing. We’ve been so many days without a road win over a top-10 team. It’s exhilarating right now.”
By the numbers:
2,558: It had been 2,558 days since Tennessee beat a top-10 opponent (No. 9 Duke) on the road before its victory over No. 10 Kentucky
6: The Lady Vols blocked six shots, including a game-winning one by Carter
1,016: Points scored by Isabelle Harrison in her UT career
