Kim Caldwell had to go over the entire game plan again at halftime of Lady Vols basketball’s road matchup with Florida.
Tennessee didn’t look like the No. 13 team in the country as it fell behind by 11 points in the second quarter. The Lady Vols weren’t defending well, they weren’t crashing the offensive glass and their offense was stagnant. And it didn’t help that leading scorer Talaysia Cooper sat on the bench with two fouls for all but two minutes of the first half.
But after Caldwell’s halftime refresher, Tennessee came out in the third quarter looking like itself again. The Lady Vols scored 37 points in the third quarter, giving them a lead they wouldn’t give up to win 86-78 on Sunday.
“We didn’t come out doing anything we had talked about or practiced or planned,” Caldwell said on the Lady Vol Radio Network. “We were pretty hard on them, and I think they did a really good job responding. And I think a couple months ago, we would have just continued to do the exact same thing.”
Tennessee (21-6, 8-6 SEC) has won only one other game after trailing at halftime − its win at home over UConn. The Lady Vols trailed at halftime of all six of their losses in SEC play, and they broke that trend against the Gators (14-14, 5-9) to notch a fourth straight win. The nine-point deficit was the second-largest halftime deficit this season.
The Lady Vols’ performance in the first half without Cooper, who still led the team with 18 points, showed how important the 6-foot guard is in everything they do.
Caldwell said Cooper did a “really good job not shutting down” after her early fouls, talking to her teammates when they came to the bench. But there aren’t many games remaining in the season Tennessee can survive almost an entire half without Cooper.
Even accounting for Cooper’s absence, the sluggish start was a sign the Lady Vols still have maturing to do.
Caldwell said going into the trip to Florida that it was a “huge game” for them, mostly because they haven’t played well on the road since beating Arkansas on Jan. 12.
Since then, the Lady Vols have dropped road games against Vanderbilt, Texas and LSU, and they nearly lost at Missouri three weeks ago. Caldwell talked to the team about needing to have a good game on the road before Tennessee plays at No. 14 Kentucky on Thursday.
“I think if we go to Lexington and we play like this, we lose. I think we go to the SEC tournament and we play like this, we lose,” Caldwell said. “We got to mature a little bit as a team down the stretch.”
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There’s somewhat of a correlation between Tennessee’s offensive success and its effort on the defensive end. It’s easier to set up the full-court press after making a shot, and the Lady Vols tend to ramp up the defensive pressure once they see shots going in.
Part of Tennessee’s third-quarter explosion was due to 17 points off nine Florida turnovers.
“I think we are a bit of a team that – when we hit shots, we play a little bit harder,” Caldwell said. “So I think it was a combination of both those things.”
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on X @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why the Lady Vols have maturing to do after narrow win at Florida
