Kim Caldwell cautioned that the beginning of the season wasn’t going to look pretty.
That warning held true even though Lady Vols basketball notched a 101-53 win over Samford in the season opener Tuesday. Tennessee has a long ways to go, but there were promising signs at Food City Center in its first win under Caldwell.
The Lady Vols’ half-court defense needs work, but they showed moments of brilliance with their full-court press. They didn’t shoot well enough as a whole from 3-point range, but senior guards Jewel Spear and Samara Spencer were consistent threats.
Talaysia Cooper had too many turnovers, but she made up for it defensively, logging six steals in addition to her 19 points and five assists. Cooper had a strong connection with Zee Spearman on the court, finding her multiple times for easy layups.
Spearman led the Lady Vols with 20 points on 10-for-12 shooting with six rebounds. Spear logged 18 points, seven rebounds, four steals, two assists and a block.
Caldwell went with the same starting lineup as the exhibition – Spencer, Cooper, Spear, Ruby Whitehorn and Sara Puckett. When Caldwell went back to the starters, Spearman was often in the lineup with them instead of Puckett.
It took a while for the Lady Vols to settle in defensively, and they only led 26-17 after the first quarter. And it didn’t help that they only made one of their seven 3-pointers.
But they started to get into a groove with their full-court press in the second quarter and forced 12 turnovers. With Cooper and redshirt freshman Kaniya Boyd at the top of the press, UT forced back-to-back 10-second violations.
By halftime, Tennessee scored 21 points off 18 turnovers. It also went 4-for-10 from 3-point range and started to build a lead. The Lady Vols held Samford to nine points in the second and led 49-26 at halftime. Tennessee ended with 37 forced turnovers for 50 points.
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Rebounding is an area that needs to be cleaned up. Both teams had 20 at halftime, and Tennessee gave up eight offensive rebounds. It ended up barely wining the battle on the boards 41-38 and gave up 17 offensive rebounds total. But the Lady Vols offset that with 21 offensive rebounds for 31 second-chance points.
Tennessee shot 48.1% from the field and went 10-for-34 on 3-pointers.
Spencer left the game with an injury in the fourth quarter and did not return.
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Lady Vols basketball logs first win of Kim Caldwell era over Samford
