Just 18 days after giving birth to her son Conor and in the first win for No. 19 Tennessee in this epic rivalry since 2007, first-year coach Kim Caldwell’s Lady Vols took down No. 5 UConn at home, 80-76.
“I thought we played really hard,” Caldwell said. “I was so proud of their effort. That’s a very good team — I just thought maybe we outworked them, and that’s what we needed.”
Tennessee, known for its high-volume 3-point shooting, didn’t connect as much from behind the arc as Caldwell thought her team might need to take down the Huskies (going 7-of-28), instead getting a lot of production in the paint. The Lady Vols took advantage of the fact that UConn doesn’t have a pure rim protector on its roster this season and scored 42 paint points and outrebounded the Huskies, 46-34.
What was typical of Tennessee was the chaos caused by the Lady Vols’ full-court pressure defense, specifically in a decisive third quarter in which Tennessee outscored UConn, 22-15 — the only quarter of the game the Lady Vols outscored the Huskies. In that quarter, the Huskies went scoreless from the floor for nearly 4 1/2 minutes, allowing Tennessee to put on a 13-2 run as UConn missed eight consecutive field goals.
Zee Spearman (16 points) and Samara Spencer (14 points) hit some…
