VU WBB: Tennessee 83, Vanderbilt 64

Vanderbilt fell to 6-6 in SEC play Sunday afternoon with a 83-64 loss to Tennessee in Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. Jasmine Lister led the Dores with 24 points, while freshmen Heather Bowe and Morgan Batey added 10 points each. Batey was Vanderbilt's leading rebounder with six boards.

After Jasmine Lister opened scoring for the game with a 3-pointer, Vanderbilt fell into an early hole, trailing by nine points at 14-5 before the first media timeout.

But then, as they'd do all night, the Dores made a run to tie the score at 16-16 midway through the half. Unfortunately for Vanderbilt, the Lady Vols answered the run, like they did all night, and a few minutes later, they build the lead back up to seven points at 25-18. Going into halftime, Tennessee held a 39-29.

The first half could have been worse, as Lister suffered a shoulder injury late in the half. After leaving the game and going to the locker room, she returned to the game a few minutes later, although her shoulder was obviously still bothering her.

But the bullet that the Dores dodged with Lister hit Tiffany Clarke instead. Clarke, who scored seven first half points and led the Dores in rebounding at halftime with five boards, started throwing up in the locker room at halftime and didn't return to the court with the team. Freshman post Kendall Shaw started in her place. Soon afterwards, Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb inserted two freshmen guards, Jasmine Jenkins and Morgan Batey, into the lineup in place of seniors Gabby Smith and Elan Brown.

For the vast majority of minutes in the rest of the half, the Vanderbilt lineup consisted of Lister plus four freshmen. The UT lead ballooned to 20 points at 60-40, but after a time out, the Dores reeled off a 10-0 run of their own to cut the deficit to 10 points with 8:40 left. Although Vanderbilt couldn't cut further into the lead, they were fend UT off, and with five minutes left in the game, the Dores still trailed by 10 points.

Then, much to the relief of the pink-and-orange-clad home crowd, the Lady Vols finally put the game out of reach with a 7-0 run and went on to seal the 83-64 victory.


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Thompson-Boling Arena




Inside Thompson-Boling Arena




Pink t-shirts for fans




Player introductions - fireworks




Player introductions - "#11 Cierra Burdick"




Tip-off!




Gabby Smith




Kendall Shaw




Jasmine Lister for 3!




Kendall Shaw




Tiffany Clarke




Elan Brown




Scary moment




Jasmine Lister




Maggie Morrison




Jasmine Jenkins




Jasmine Lister




Heather Bowe



Morgan Batey


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Photos copyright 2013 by Whitney D. for VandyMania.com