As the game turned: After falling down, 6-0, early in the game, the Lady Vols found themselves trailing Tennessee State 20-14 midway through the first half of Monday night’s game.
Senior forward Cierra Burdick then drove down the baseline and laid the ball in while drawing a foul. She missed the free throw, but Tennessee pulled down the offensive board and found Jamie Nared for an elbow jumper, starting a 22-0 run over six minutes of play.
While the Lady Vols started to get their offense going, the defense is what really sparked the run, forcing seven turnovers over the six-minute span.
“If you can’t defend, then you’re in trouble,” head coach Holly Warlick said. “You’re relying on your team outscoring people, and when the pressure is on, your shooting percentage goes down. But can you get a stop when you need a stop.”
After starting the game flat, Tennessee amped up the pressure, forcing 38 turnovers in all, while dictating the game to the pace it wanted to play.
After serving s two-game suspension, this was Burdick’s second game of the season, and while she failed to score in last week’s win over Winthrop, the Charlotte, N.C., product found her stroke tonight. She scored 10 points on the night, with six of them coming during that 22-0 run.
“It felt good to see the ball go in,” Burdick said. “But at the same time, I didn’t rebound the ball well tonight, and that is unacceptable on my part. Hopefully I’ll bounce back and see the ball through the net as well as get some rebounds.”
Hot topic: The Lady Vols pride themselves on rebounding the basketball at a very high rate, and so far this season, they had done just that.
Monday night, after being out-rebounded just three times all of last season, Tennessee was beaten on the boards by a much smaller but very feisty Tennessee State team.
“I think it was a combination of missed box-outs and not crashing the boards,” Burdick said. “I think we were kind of in a no-man’s land, where you aren’t boxing out and you aren’t crashing either. That’s tough. You can’t expect to get any rebounds like that.”
The Tigers pulled down 42 rebounds compared to 37 from Tennessee. Nineteen of those boards came on the offensive end of the floor, leading to 14 second chance points for Tennessee State.
Forward Briana Morrow led the charge for TSU. The senior only scored two points but pulled down 12 total rebounds, eight offensive.
Spotlight: With All-SEC forward Isabelle Harrison sidelined with a knee injury and Mercedes Russell sitting out the season with foot problems, Nia Moore’s role continues to increase.
On Monday night, she recorded her second double-double in four games, leading all scorers with 25 points and pulling down a team-high 11 rebounds.
“She’s been tremendous,” Burdick said. “I mean she’s come in and she’s had the opportunity. And I think she has prepared for this moment, and she has just taken advantage of it. She’s been huge for us.”
Twenty-five points is a career high for the junior center, and it brings her average on the season to 20 points per game from the player that nobody expected to play a key role on this team.
Injuries have paved the way for more and more minutes for the Chicago, Ill. native, and she continues to make the most of her time on the floor.
“On the boards, on putting the ball in the basket, I don’t think really people have expected this from Nia except us,” Burdick said. “Using the time she’s been putting in with Dean and the posts, and I think Izzy and Bash have really pushed her to be better, and I think it’s showing night in and night out.”
The other guys: Tiger guard Rachel Allen scored 13 points in the loss to Tennessee, all coming in the first half, and the generously listed 5-foot-5 guard also managed to pull down three rebounds among the giants.
Outside the box score: Twice in the first half, TSU led the Lady Vols by eight points, marking the largest deficit Tennessee has faced so far this year.
Say something: Warlick on the status of Harrison (knee) and Jasmine Jones (concussion) “I hope that they’ll be ready by Chattanooga. I haven’t heard that word but I’m…I’m hopeful that they’ll both be ready to play against UTC.”
By the numbers:
21: The Lady Vols dished out 21 assists on 33 made field goals, led by Andraya Carter with five.
37: Tennessee shot 37 free throws as TSU was called for 28 fouls on the night. The Lady Vols made 28 of those 37.
18.8: Tennessee made only three of 16 attempted three point field goals, giving them an 18.8 three-point shooting percentage for the game.
