Lady Vols Winning Streak Ends with Florida

Staff Photo by Angie Stanley

Despite a strong, aggressive start, the Tennessee Lady Vols did not succeed in their match up with the University of Florida Gators, Thursday night.

 Full court press action by both the Lady Vols and the Gators, the first quarter ended with Tennessee pulling to a 25-16 lead, due to epic scoring and aggressive rebounding. The second quarter, however, found Tennessee loosing steam, as Florida closed the gap and outscored the Lady Vols 13-10. The half ended with the Lady Vols still on top, 35-29.

The second half belonged to the Florida Gators.  They came back with a second wind, outscoring the Lady Vols 24-18 in the third quarter, and 21-13 in the fourth.  In the second half alone, the lead would change 7 times. After a barrage of three pointers from the Florida Gators, and several rebounds, the Florida Gators came out on top 74-66.

Bashaara Graves, with some high flying action, grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds.  The high scorer for the Lady Vols was Diamond DeShields, sinking 16 for the evening, and hitting double figures for the 11th straight game. Florida’s Eleanna Christinaki had the most buckets for the evening, with a total of 18.

Although the Lady Vols had a significant improvement on the defensive end of the ball, on the offense, they still only ran 29.3% from the field, and 18.2% from the three point line.  The Gators sank 44.8%, and 50% from beyond the three.

Thursday’s loss breaks the 11 game winning streak that Tennessee has with Florida. It is also the first loss that the Lady Vols has from the Gators at TB Arena since 2006.

The University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers return to The Summit on Sunday to face the University of Auburn Tigers. Tip off is set for 2 p.m. on ESPNU.

Staff Photo by Angie Stanley