Lady Vols victory involves relief, recovery
Tennessee's Diamond DeShields didn't miss much when taking aim against Florida.
The Lady Vols' redshirt junior guard converted 9 of 13 field goal attempts and 8 of 11 free throws in scoring a team-high 27 points.
She also shot straight in reviewing an 84-75 SEC victory over the Gators at Exactech Arena in Gainesville, Fla. She called the victory "a relief" and "a step" but also said "we can be so much better."
The Lady Vols (13-7, 4-3 SEC) will need to be better Monday night when they play No. 5 South Carolina (18-1, 8-0 SEC) in Columbia, S.C.
In the meantime, Thursday's victory ended a two-game conference losing streak on the road. It was achieved, in part, by avoiding some of the problems that occurred in those losses.
Unlike at Ole Miss on Jan. 12, when they were doomed by 34.8 percent field goal shooting, the Lady Vols shot 47.2 percent from the floor against Florida. They made 7 of 14 3-point attempts for their most productive and efficient performance behind the arc in league play.
"I don't think as a team we took ill-advised threes," UT coach Holly Warlick said. "I thought we attacked the basket. I think we took open threes when we needed to. We didn't force threes."
Unlike at Auburn on Jan. 19, when they committed 22 turnovers, the Lady Vols limited themselves to 14 against Florida. Although five occurred in the fourth quarter, Florida's lone benefit was one free throw. Tennessee had a 20-16 edge in points off turnovers.
"In the past two road losses we've had, when the other team has gone on that run, we've kind of folded," DeShields said. "(Thursday) we were pretty resilient."
Conversely, Tennessee persevered in spite of its defense and rebounding. Florida forward Ronni Williams scored 31 points and fellow forward Haley Lorenzen had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Williams, who now leads the SEC in scoring at 18.3 points per game, primarily drove toward the basket and either scored or turned fouls into free throws. She was 11-for-13 from the line. Her performance was ominous, considering South Carolina forward A'ja Wilson operates from close range and averages 16.9 points per game. .
"We can't really get in foul trouble," UT forward Jaime Nared said, "so you have to be smart guarding a player like (Williams), who plays in attack mode the entire game."
The Lady Vols utilized two different zone defense alignments and still struggled to bar Williams and her teammates from the basket. Florida scored 44 of its points from inside the lane.
"We can't allow the other team to penetrate so much when we're in our zone," DeShields said. "That's the point of being in a zone. That can't happen."
Tennessee also was outrebounded, 42-30. Prior to Thursday, UT had outrebounded 15 of its opponents and never been outrebounded by more than eight. Florida's 17-5 edge in second-chance points was the largest of the season by a UT foe.
Tennessee's top rebounder was guard Jordan Reynolds, who gathered nine. And she missed five minutes in the second half after suffering an ankle injury.
Nared thought the Lady Vols struggled to box out in their zone alignments. Warlick said they need a better grip as well.
"I don't know how many balls we let them take out of our hands," Warlick said. "We just have to be stronger with the ball."