Tennessee Basketball: Lady Vols take care of business in season opener

Tennessee Lady Vols Basketball takes care of business in season opener against Western Kentucky with 87-47 win over the Hilltoppers.

Tennessee basketball fans were hoping Rick Barnes’ men’s basketball team would be starting their season this week, but with the program on pause, they’ll have to wait until the middle of December for the start of the season. Luckily, the Lady Vols look to be back in their old ways after a dominant win in the season opener.

If you look at the 87-47 final score, you might think that the offense is the main takeaway from this game, and although the offense was dominant, we can’t look at this game without talking about the defense.

We’re only one game in the second season under head coach Kellie Harper, but if the Lady Vols can keep up what we saw on Saturday, then I have a pretty good feeling on how her career is going to go at Tennessee. The real tests will come later in the season when the Lady Vols face some tougher opponents in the SEC, but this is undoubtedly a good way to start the season.

Throughout the game, the defense shut down the Hilltopper offense and allowed for the offense to go on some big runs throughout the game to grow the Lady Vols’ lead.

The Lady Vols lead 38-20 going into halftime, and the only thing on their mind was expanding that lead in the third quarter. We saw three big runs in the second half where the Lady Vols opened the second quarter with a 12-0 run, a third-quarter 10-0 run, and another late third-quarter 9-0 run.

If you’re looking for more Lady Vols action, you won’t have to wait long. The Lady Vols will be back in action on Tuesday when the East Tennessee State Bucs come to Knoxville. This will be another opportunity for Harper and the Lady Vols to continue to build on their success.