JACKSONVILLE, FL- As Tennessee prepares for the SEC women’s basketball Tournament in Jacksonville, they will try to overcome a major team flaw: turnovers.
Turnovers have plagued the Lady Vols throughout the season. There were only four games this season where the Lady Vols had less than 12 turnovers, including the Oregon State win where they had only nine.
However, the Lady Vols have turned the ball over 20 or more times in seven games, the highest being 24 on the road against who else but the Lady Vols opponent on Thursday — Arkansas.
“I think in our first game (against Arkansas) with turnovers we were very casual,” head coach Holly Warlick said before her team left for the Sunshine State on Wednesday. “We had low energy.”
The Lady Vols rebounded later in the season at home against Arkansas, beating the Razorbacks 75-57 in Thompson-Boling Arena. Tennessee only committed 12 turnovers in that game.
“In the second game, we had more of a sense of urgency,” Warlick later said. “We had, I think, more respect for Arkansas. Arkansas is a very good basketball team, and they’ve been in just about every game they’ve played.
“I think our understanding that we had to play 40 minutes in that second game was a huge difference.”
The Lady Vols (17-12, 8-8 SEC) season has been one for the record books in all the wrong ways. The team’s 12 losses are the most ever in a season. Tennessee lost to Mississippi State for the first time in program history and snapped a 42-game winning streak against Alabama.
Even though struggles have been everywhere for the Lady Vols this year, the team finished out the season strong on Sunday, beating Georgia 80-60 on Senior Day.
The Lady Vols committed only 12 turnovers against the Lady Bulldogs.
Guard Jordan Reynolds feels that the Lady Vols are tough to beat when they limit their turnovers.
“I think we got a lot more shots up than Georgia did just because we took care of the ball so early on,” Reynolds said. “That’s very key for our team right now.”
Tennessee will look to build momentum from Sunday’s win when it takes on the No. 10 seeded Razorbacks Thursday night at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
If the Lady Vols win, they will take on No. 2 Texas A&M on Friday. The Lady Vols lost in overtime to the Aggies 76-71 the last time the teams played.
The rest of the bracket: The Lady Vols’ half of the bracket shapes up fairly well for the team. Juggernaut South Carolina is in the other half of the bracket, so the Lady Vols wouldn’t have to play the Gamecocks until potentially the SEC Championship game, if the Lady Vols were to make it that far.
Vanderbilt beat Ole Miss on Wednesday, assuring the Commodores a matchup against No. 6 seed Georgia on Thursday. That game will take place 25 minutes after the conclusion of the Lady Vols game. The winner of that game goes on to face No. 3 Mississippi State.
The top half of the bracket shows No. 9 Auburn taking on No. 8 Missouri at 12 p.m. with the winner moving on to No. 1 South Carolina.
Half an hour after the Auburn-Missouri matchup, No. 13 LSU, who beat No. 12 Alabama on Wednesday, will take on No. 5 Kentucky. The winner will take on No. 4 Florida.
All four of Wednesday’s games will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
