The women’s basketball team played the Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday at Freedom Hall to a nearly sold out crowd. This marked the second time the two teams met on the court, with the last time being in the 1980-81 season.
In a close game, the Volunteers held on to defeat the Bucs 72-68.
The start of the game saw the Bucs manage the pace. With a trading of points at two, the Bucs took over pushing their score to 7-4 under the 6-minute mark.
Junior guard Erica Haynes-Overton (Nashville, Tennessee) and sophomore guard Kaia Upton (Nashville, Tennessee) pushed up the points for the Bucs in the early going, with layups and free throws.
It wasn’t until under three minutes that the Vols tied the game at 10. UT took the lead at the two-minute mark after Jordan Horston made a layup. UT dominated before the end of the first half.
The Bucs made several attempts to reclaim the lead, but UT’s scoring couldn’t be stopped. The Bucs etched their way down by 10 to close out the half.
The second half saw the Bucs and Vols still exchanging points. UT maintained the lead, by as much as 10 to 12 points.
In the final quarter, the Bucs came alive with an attempt at a comeback. Down by eight in at the start, the Bucs pushed to get the score at 68-62 with under two minutes left.
Freedom Hall erupted when sophomore forward E’Lease Stafford (Lawrence, Kansas) added a couple of free throws and a layup, while Haynes-Overton added another layup to put the Bucs two points shy of a tie with just under a minute in the game.
The Bucs were closing on a two-point game, but a foul caused UT to score two free throws. Hayes-Overton made a jumper to make it another two-point game.
With 30 seconds left in the game, the Bucs tried fouling to get another opportunity to score, but UT prevailed with two more free throws to make it a four-point game win for the Vols.
Haynes-Overton led the Bucs in scoring with a career-high 41 points, the upperclassman hopes to be a strong leader for the team this year.
“I want the team chemistry to be better than it was last year,” said Haynes-Overton.
The official attendance for the game was 5,881.
The Bucs are on the road for the next three games, starting with Liberty on Nov. 8. The Bucs return home against Radford at Brooks Gym on Nov. 21.
