Knoxville, TN – Senior forward Janiah Barker scored a career-high 29 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, but No. 21/21 Tennessee dropped a Southeastern Conference contest to Texas A&M, 82-74, after a frantic fourth-quarter comeback bid came up short.
The Lady Vols (16-9, 8-5 SEC) outscored the Aggies 23-13 in the final frame and used a 10-0 run to cut an 18-point deficit to two with 2:07 to go, but A&M scored the game’s final six points to seal the outcome.
Senior forward Zee Spearman and redshirt junior Talaysia Cooper joined Barker in double figures with 14 and 11, respectively.
Texas A&M (11-11, 4-9 SEC) was led by guard Ny’Ceara Pryor, who scored 13 points in the first quarter and finished with 22. Forward Fatmata Janneh and guard Lemyah Hylton contributed 17 and 12, respectively, with Janneh pulling down a game-high 12 boards.
The Aggies came out firing, hitting their first four shots to seize a 10-0 lead and force a Tennessee timeout with 7:33 remaining in the opening stanza. Three Barker buckets and layups by Mia Pauldo and Lauren Hurst enabled the Lady Vols to work it back to four, at 14-10 with 5:32 to go. A pair of Deniya Prawl free throws pulled UT within three, 20-17, with 2:26 left, but 80 percent shooting in the period (12 of 15) propelled Texas A&M to a 31-23 lead despite threes from Cooper and Nya Robertson in the final minute and change.
A&M continued to shoot well at the outset of the second quarter. After Barker’s three-pointer trimmed the gap to five, 31-26, the Aggies put together an 8-0 spree to extend their lead to 13, 39-26, with 7:27 to go and force another Tennessee timeout. Robertson drained a trey at the 5:49 mark to cut the gap to 10, 39-29. A pair of Barker free throws and a Cooper trey whittled the deficit to six, 40-34, with 4:24 remaining. Eight straight from Barker, including a pair of threes, pulled the Lady Vols to within three, 45-42 with 38 seconds to go before an Emerald Parker layup sent Texas A&M into the intermission with a 47-42 advantage.
The Aggies started the third frame much like they did the first, outscoring the Big Orange during the early going, 12-2, including a 10-0 run that pushed the lead to 59-44 and forced the home team to call time once again with 6:25 remaining. The Lady Vols struggled to hit a field goal in the third, making only three of 15 attempts while A&M connected on 10 of 16 for 62.5-percent accuracy in building its lead to 69-51 by the end of the period.
Jaida Civil gave Tennessee a jolt of energy to open the fourth quarter, hitting a layup and then knocking down a pair of free throws to trim the deficit to 14, 69-55, with 8:53 left. After Texas A&M countered with a Janae Kent three-pointer, an old-fashioned three-point play from Spearman and a conventional trey from Janiah Barker drew the Lady Vols within 11, 72-61, forcing an Aggies timeout with 7:01 to go.
Barker hit another three at the 6:04 mark to make it 72-64, and after A&M hit back-to-back buckets, the Big Orange got pairs of free throws from Civil and Spearman and layups from Spearman and Cooper to draw within four, 76-72, and force another timeout with 2:52 left. With 2:07 remaining, Barker swished two free-throw attempts to make it 76-74, but a bucket in the paint by Janneh with 1:42 on the clock and a three by Hylton with 29 ticks left helped the visitors end the threat.
Next Up For UT Women’s Basketball
The Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team will conclude its arduous stretch of four games in eight days by playing the last one at No. 11/9 Oklahoma on Sunday (ESPN). The Lady Vols and Sooners will meet at the Lloyd Noble Center at 1:00pm CT (2:00pm ET). The contest will be televised nationally on ESPN and also carried on Lady Vol Radio Network stations with audio streaming available on UTSports.com.
