College Station, Texas – Tennessee outscored No. 21/22 Texas A&M 20-17 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to overcome an Aggies team that scored 27 points on nearly 70-percent shooting in the third quarter to send the Lady Vols to a 79-62 setback in Reed Arena.

UT (17-9, 6-7 SEC) was led in scoring by sophomore guard Evina Westbrook who had 17 points and five assists. Senior forward Cheridene Green posted a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Rennia Davis also managed double digits, finishing the day with 10 points.

Kayla Wells was the high scorer for Texas A&M (20-6, 9-4 SEC) with 29 points. Chennedy Carter was close behind with 28 points, while Shambria Washington had 11.

Texas native Zaay Green got off to a hot start, scoring UT’s first four points to give the Lady Vols their first lead of the game at 4-2. Both teams struggled from the floor in the opening minutes, combining for just 14 points by the 3:49 mark when UT led 8-6. Tennessee maintained its lead until Carter converted on an old-fashioned three-point play to put the Aggies up by three at 17-14 with just over a minute to play. Cheridene Green, though, knocked down a short jumper in traffic to cut the lead to one by the end of the first.

Wells hit two 3-pointers and Carter knocked down two jumpers to put A&M up 29-23 at the 6:18 mark, but Mimi Collins answered with back-to-back buckets to cut the lead to one with just over three minutes remaining in the half. Wells responded by knocking down her third trey of the quarter to put the Aggies back up by four before Cheridene Green nailed a jumper to cut the deficit to two with 1:45 to play. In the closing seconds Zaay Green narrowly missed a 10-foot jumper that would have tied the game at 32 all, and Washington capitalized, knocking down a three at the buzzer to put Texas A&M up 35-30 at the half.

Davis scored the first bucket of the second half to put the Lady Vols within three, but the Aggies mounted a 6-0 run to lead by nine at the 7:51 mark. Jackson answered by knocking down a jumper on the fast break, but A&M then scored eight unanswered points to go up 49-34 with 4:57 left in the quarter. The Aggies went on to ride a nearly 70-percent shooting percentage in the third quarter to a 62-42 lead entering the final stanza.

After A&M knocked down the initial basket of the fourth, the Lady Vols put together a 6-0 run to pull within 15 with just under eight minutes left in the game. The Aggies responded with Johnson and Carter combining to stretch the lead to 23. Westbrook knocked down eight points in the final five minutes, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tables.

Up Next: Tennessee will return home to host No. 13/13 South Carolina on Sunday at 4 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

Cleaning The Glass: UT out-rebounded A&M 44 to 41 and is averaging 45.0 rpg. in SEC play while holding opponents to an average of 34.6 rpg. UT has now outworked 22 of 26 opponents on the glass this season, including 12 of 13 in SEC play.

Big Green Reounding Machine: Cheridene Green snagged a game-high 12 rebounds while scoring 11 points to post her eighth career double-double and sixth of the season. She has recorded 10+ rebounds in eight of 13 SEC games.

Westbrook Dishin’: Evina Westbrook had five assists against the Aggies, moving her total of games with 5+ assists to 17 on the season.

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Rob Lanier Transcript

On better defensive performance:
“I thought it was a great response effort wise. We had a great practice on Monday, and that effort carried over to the Vanderbilt game. Obviously we didn’t make shots, but the effort was great, and the intensity was there. That is a step in the right direction.”

On offensive performance: 
“I thought we were a little bit tentative. Our execution wasn’t all the way there. We didn’t look as sharp as we have been, and the pace wasn’t to our liking as we got later in the game. The pace was good early because we were getting stops, and then we weren’t converting in transition enough. Execution wise, we could have been a little bit sharper.”

On not being too selfish/unselfish:
“I think we have an unselfish group. I think we have to remain true to who we are as a team and compete. Selfishness rears its head when you lose perspective a little bit, and the kids have gone through a stretch that was unprecedented for all of us. Sometimes, you lose perspective and that can creep into your play. I think we have the ultimate fisherman to reel them back in, and I thought he did that. It showed in our effort and our collectiveness on Tuesday, but we just weren’t at our best offensively.”

On Tremont Waters:
“He is such a gifted player. He can score at all three levels. For a guy at his size, he has an uncanny ability to finish in traffic at the rim. He can do it at the midrange, and he can shoot it from deep. He plays a fearless brand of basketball, and he is just so good with the ball in his hands. Then, he has the ability to get his teammates involved. He is certainly the guy that makes them go.”

On LSU’s rebounding:
“We thought that West Virginia presented that challenge as well going into that game. Obviously, we thought we were prepared for what we were going to see against Kentucky, but we weren’t. This is as big as a challenge on the glass as anybody. Even if we fight that fight really hard like Florida did last night, you are going to lose some of those battles throughout the game because of their size and talent. If we stay constant in the fight, then maybe we will win enough over the course of the game.”

On LSU’s aggressive nature:
“They have a terrific young coach. It is also recruiting too, because they have some cats that can go do it too. It is rare and something that has always been a part of Coach Barnes program as well, so we can relate to it, even though it isn’t as characteristic of this group as much as we would like it to be. We definitely respect it because we realize the impact it can have on winning.”

On Naz Reid:
“Wow, what a talent that young man is. I’m watching film on him, and I’m saying, ‘how much of this do I want to show the guys?’ He is so unique because he can turn over either shoulder, turn his back to the basket, can face the basket, and step out and shoot the basketball with consistency. When you take that away, he can drive it and he is a great passer. He is checking so many boxes. It is rare you get a guy that young and that big and physically talented who actually plays with a high motor. He is a tremendous talent.”

On playing teams coming off a loss:
“I think we will learn a little bit this week from last week. I think what we have tried to do is to make the focus on ourselves. We know we have a big challenge ahead of us on Saturday. They are a really good team, and they really know how to finish and win close games. It is a great characteristic to have, and it really speaks to their coaching staff that he can have his group playing this well in his second year with young players closing out games. He deserves a lot of credit.”

On bench play:
“That is a point of emphasis for us. We were trending on playing more bench minutes. The game kind of dictated the rotation because we didn’t get the traction that we needed. If you look back to last year’s game, this was a game where Derrick Walker played 14 minutes and John Fulkerson combined for about 20 minutes in the game. Jalen Johnson is really starting to establish himself with some minutes in the rotation, and Yves Pons is working his way back into form.”

On offensive woes:
“I don’t think there is any need for turn around. I think the season always presents challenges and ups and downs. It felt good to have the feeling that we were immune to having ups and downs. We hadn’t lost since Thanksgiving going into that game. We can’t overreact to a couple of games that we weren’t prolific, offensively. We might have overacted that we had so many good games offensively if you really think about it. I think it is the natural course of the season, but we got spoiled there for a little bit. We got brought down to earth, but we are a good offensive team, and we will some good nights and may have bad ones along the way.”

On learning from the Kentucky game:
“Every game this season has been a good experience. Even the Kentucky game was a good experience for us. How do you know what it’s like to be No. 1 unless you get to be No. 1? We got into a situation where we were taking teams best shot. It turns out that Kentucky’s best shot is better than most. We just learned another lesson. The elite programs have a sense of what that is. We have guys on our team that have had 16 win seasons. We have a group of guys that have had a losing season. Most teams who have had a losing season don’t get to experience being No. 1. We chalk it up as an other experience to grow from.”

On having 3 games in a week:
“For this game, we did tweak some stuff in practice. I think if we had Monday back we might of cut about 10 minutes off in that one. We had our best practice of the year Monday in terms of competition. It didn’t totally reflect itself in the game, but it was good to see that. Certainly this week, we have to be mindful of the schedule for sure.”

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