University of Tennessee “Lady Vols” rout Ole Miss

February 11, 2013 |

Knoxville, TN – Led by junior Meighan Simmons who finished with 24 points, the Tennessee women’s basketball team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back finishing with a 97-68 victory over Ole Miss (8-15, 1-9 SEC) in front of a crowd of 11,727 at Thompson-Boling Arena Sunday.

Bashaara Graves

It was the ninth wire-to-wire win of the season for the Lady Vols (19-5, 10-1) and their fourth in conference play.

Five Tennessee players tallied double-digit scoring for the sixth time this season en route to a 59.4 shooting percentage, the highest of the season. The Lady Vols shot 66.7 percent from the field in the second half putting up 57 points in the frame on the scoreboard, the most in any half this season and the most since a 58-point first half against Alabama on Jan. 6th, 2011, a game UT won 110-45.

With her team-leading 24 points, Simmons moved into 26th place on the all-time scoring list finishing the day with 1,319 points passing Tonya Edwards (1,309). It was the eighth time this season that Simmons registered over 20 points and the 18th time in her career.

Bashaara Graves notched her ninth double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 boards, tying Tamika Catchings for fourth-most double-doubles by a Lady Vol freshman. While fellow freshman Nia Moore notched 12 points, a career-high, in just 10 minutes of play.

Aiding Simmons was sophomore Ariel Massengale who dished out eight assists one off of her season-high (9) while Kamiko Williams added five helpers, one off of her career-high (6).

The Lady Vols began the game off on a 16-2 run and cruised the rest of the way holding Ole Miss to just one field goal in the first seven and a half minutes of play.

The Rebels briefly got back into the game closing the gap to 28-23 with six minutes left in the first half. However, the Lady Vols finished the half on a 12-4 run to earn a 13-point, 40-27 halftime lead, marking the 12th time that Tennessee tallied at least 40 points at the half this season.

In the second half, the Lady Vols grabbed a 20-point lead on a 3-pointer by Taber Spani, extending a 14-4 run with just under 13 minutes remaining in the game.

The Lady Vols extended their lead to 22-points as Simmons took a no-look pass from Cierra Burdick and drained her second three of the game with 8:21 left to play en route to the 29-point victory.

Tennessee will return to action next Sunday, February 17th when they take on Vanderbilt at Thompson-Boling Arena at 5 p.m. in a game that will be televised live on ESPN2.

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