Lady Vols cruise past Eagles in exhibition, 135-49

Vols dominate in Caldwell’s debut

photo by UT Athletics

The Lady Vols forced 43 turnovers on 30 steals, hit 19 three-pointers and eclipsed 30 points in each quarter en route to a 135-49 exhibition victory over Carson-Newman in Kim Caldwell‘s debut as Tennessee’s head coach.

With an announced crowd of 9,613 watching Food City Center, Big Orange posted the second-highest exhibition point total in program history. First on the list is a 144-52 win over Dynamo Kiev on November 5, 2000, and tonight’s performance matched a 135-55 UT win over Carson-Newman on November 6, 2008. The only better production from Tennessee women’s basketball all-time came via a 136-26 regular season blowout of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez on November 29, 2002.

Junior guard Ruby Whitehorn was sensational in leading six Big Orange players in double figures and shooting 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting. Fifth year guard Jewel spear and junior forward Sea Spearman contributed 17 each, while the redshirt sophomore guard Talaysia Cooperjunior forward Sara Puckett and redshirt freshmen Kaniya Boyd chipped in 16, 14 and 13 respectively. Spear finished five of 11 from beyond the arc, while Whitehorn was four of six from deep.

Cooper also led Tennessee with eight steals, while Boyd was tops in rebounds with seven and senior guard Samara Spencer dished out eight assists without a turnover in her debut. UT finished with 26 assists on 49 buckets and committed just nine turnovers on the night.

Carson-Newman, picked to win the South Atlantic Conference of NCAA Division II, was led by Jennifer Sullivan with 15 points.

Tennessee jumped out to a 6-0 lead on consecutive three-pointers from Whitehorn and Spear to make it a 10-5 going into the first quarter media break, as the Lady Vol defense rushed the Lady Eagles to 2-for-12 shooting during the early start. UT came out of the timeout huddle with a bounce, outscoring CN the rest of the period with a 25-3 push that at one point included 22 straight points. Whitehorn finished 5 of 7 for 13 points in the frame.

The Lady Vols extended their lead to 47-19 by the media timeout of the second quarter at the 4:57 mark, with the home team shooting 70 percent from the field during that period. Tennessee forced Carson-Newman into six turnovers while expanding the margin to 28. In the final minutes of the first half, Tennessee outscored the Lady Eagles, 17–4, to take a 64–23 lead into intermission. Cooper and Whitehorn scored 10 and nine points, respectively, in the period, and Cooper’s five steals helped UT force 14 CN turnovers by the end of the quarter and go on a 19–0 run in that stanza as well.

Carson-Newman scored 12 points on 55.6 percent shooting during the third-quarter media break, but the Lady Vols countered with 20 of their own on 57.1 percent accuracy during the period to push their lead to 84-35 with 4:52 to go. during the period. A 21-5 blitz the rest of the way lifted Big Orange to a 105-40 lead to end the third frame, with Avery Strickland’s three in the 51-second mark, putting UT over the century mark with just over 10 minutes left in the game.

Tennessee continued to scorch the nets in the final frame, hitting 61.5 percent in the first six minutes to defeat the Lady Eagles, 21-9, and push the score to 126-49 as the media timeout of 4:05 started. UT earned the final nine points of the match, while CN remained scoreless for the final four minutes to account for the final result.

Next: The Lady Vols meet Samford Tuesday night for their regular season opener at Food City Center. The game is scheduled for a 6:30 PM tipoff with coverage on SECN+.

Exhibition history: UT is now 53-5 all-time in preseason friendlies, with its only losses coming to the Soviet National Team (1979), Athletes in Action (1992) and the U.S. National Team (1995, 2007, 2023). In the post-Pat Summitt era, UT is 13-1 in preseason friendlies, beating Carson-Newman 11 times (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024) and both Georgia and College (2021) and Coker (2012) once each. The only loss came to the U.S. women’s national team in 2023.

For the first time in orange and white: Transfers Ruby Whitehorn, Samara Spencer, Talaysia Cooper, Prefer Ayodele And Alyssa Lathamand redshirt freshmen Kaniya Boyd made their Lady Vol debut during the exhibition match. The six new faces combined for 84 points, 30 rebounds, 17 assists and 22 steals in Tennessee’s win.

Ruby on a roll: Junior Ruby Whitehorn impressed in her opening performance as Lady Vol, scoring a total of 29 points. The guard poured in 13 points in the first quarter, nine in the second frame, two in the third and five in the fourth. The Detroit, Michigan native showed great touch from beyond the arc, knocking down four of six three-point attempts.

1930s drop: Throughout tonight’s game, the red-hot Lady Vols scored 30 points or more in every quarter of the game. The Big Orange scored a total of 31 points in the first quarter, 33 in the second quarter, 41 in the third quarter and 30 in the fourth to close out the game. The Lady Vols also surpassed 100 points for the 15th time in 19 exhibition games against the Lady Eagles.