The Daily Times

The campus garages were full, the arena was packed, the pink was prominent.

But the much anticipated rematch between Southeastern Conference-leading, No. 7 Kentucky and second-place, 13th-ranked Tennessee was nothing like the nail-biter in Lexington a month ago.

Lady Vols fans didn’t seem to mind, however, when the pink-clad team in orange shoes made it a blowout in the first half and never relented on the way to a 91-54 win over the Wildcats, who had lost only a single conference contest against 10 victories.

With both squads coming off upsets, the meeting on Play 4 Kay breast cancer awareness night at Thompson-Boling Arena had all the prelude of a championship clash.

Maybe it took four losses in the last nine games or the threat of edging closer to the five SEC dings of three years ago, but whatever the motivation, the Lady Vols were more interested in making a statement than in negotiating their way to a victory.

“I thought we came out with great energy, we had confidence, we made hustle plays,” UT associate head coach Holly Warlick said. “This team has been beat up and coaches have been hard on them and they responded.”

And the beating up in the last 30 days had come not only at the hands of Notre Dame, one of the nation’s top four teams, but also from the likes of South Carolina and instate rival Vanderbilt. In fact, two of Tennessee’s last four games were SEC losses, and it wasn’t far-fetched to think the Lady Vols might succumb to Kentucky yet again.

Having scored only 21 points in the first half of the 61-60 loss to the Wildcats on Jan. 12, the Lady Vols this time pummeled their border rivals for 46 points and held a commanding advantage early in the outing.

A double-digit halftime lead and plenty of 2-3 zone defense were enough to ensure that Kentucky would sustain its second SEC loss of the season and that Tennessee would not fall into a four-way, four-loss tie with Georgia, Arkansas, and South Carolina.

With only four conference games remaining before tournament seeding next month, the Lady Vols have the easier path to winning out, which makes securing a split with the Wildcats even more critical.

“You can look at this game and at how we played against South Carolina and say what team is this?” Warlick said.

And the Lady Vols are the only ones who can answer.

Leonard Butts, former sports editor at The Daily Times, now tutors writing at Pellissippi State Community College. He wrote from Knoxville.

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