AUSTIN, Texas — Tennessee’s varied and balanced attack outweighed a career-high 31 points from Texas’ Chassidy Fussell on Sunday as six players scored at least 10 points each for the 13th-ranked Lady Vols in a 94-75 victory over 18th-ranked Texas.
Fussell, who is from Troy, Tenn., racked up the points on the team she grew up rooting for, but it wasn’t enough for the Longhorns.
“I had a rough start but just kept after it and kept playing hard,” Fussell said.
Meighan Simmons scored 18 points to lead Tennessee. Ariel Massengale and Taber Spani had 15 points apiece for Tennessee, and Cierra Burdick and Bashaara Graves scored 14 each. Graves also had 10 rebounds. Jasmine Jones added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Vols (7-1).
Tennessee shot 46.8 percent from the floor and held the Longhorns to 34.3 shooting in winning for the fourth consecutive year against Texas.
The Longhorns (6-2) stayed within reach until the final minutes thanks to Fussell and by hitting 24 of 28 free throws.
Nneka Enemkpali was the only other Longhorn player with at least 10 points, finishing with 15 points and eight rebounds. Texas had 17 turnovers to Tennessee’s 12.
Texas shot 25 percent and trailed 45-27 at halftime.
“In the first four or five minutes, we played great defense but then we didn’t rebound when we made them take bad shots,” Texas Coach Karen Aston said. “If we had been able to make a couple of critical stops, things might have been a little different.”
The Longhorns cut the Tennessee lead to 78-68 on Fussell’s three-pointer with 6:57 to play before the Lady Vols finished the game with a 16-7 run.
“We quit playing hard there for a while in the second half, and we fouled too much,” Tennessee Coach Holly Warlick said. “That not only put them on the line, but it gave Texas a chance to rest. I wanted a faster game. We controlled the tempo, but not necessarily in the way we wanted to.”
Simmons showed the nerves associated with playing before her friends and family in the opening 10 minutes but settled down and spurred the Lady Vols at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second.
This was the Lady Vols’ first game in two weeks and was Tennessee’s seventh consecutive victory after a season opening loss to Chattanooga.
Texas has lost 2 of 3 after starting the season 4-0.
“I don’t like to lose, but we saw a lot of positives about the way we played,” Aston said. “We kept fighting the whole game, and I didn’t see that a week ago [in a loss to against UCLA]. We shot too quickly in the first half when we had them in foul trouble and we needed to slow down.”
Spani came off the bench to lead the Lady Vols in the first half, scoring all 15 of her points helped by a three-for-3showing from the behind the 3-point line.
NO. 6 GEORGIA 93, LIPSCOMB 42
ATHENS, Ga. - Guard Jasmine James and Tiaria Griffin scored 18 points apiece to lead No. 6 Georgia (11-0) to a rout of Lipscomb (1-7).
Anne Marie Armstrong added 15 points and Shacobia Barbee 13 for Georgia. Hannah Phillips led out manned Lipscomb with 11 points.
Georgia dominated in all aspects of the game and never trailed. The Lady Dogs controlled the boards, 46-30, and forced 33 turnovers while making 15.
Playing its first game in 12 days because of semester final exams, Georgia wasted little time in seizing control, scoring the first 14 points in the first 3:14. The Lady Dogs led 32-13 after a steal and layup by James with 7:40 remaining until intermission.
The Lady Bisons put together eight consecutive points on three-pointers by Hannah Phillips and Alex Banks bracketed around a layup by Presley Stastney, cutting the deficit to 32-21 with 5:23 to go in the half. Georgia went into halftime with a 17-1 run that made it 49-22.
VANDERBILT 76, NO. 12 OKLAHOMA 63
NORMAN, Okla. - Christina Foggie scored 17 points, leading four players with at least 10 each, to help Vanderbilt (8-3) upset No. 12 Oklahoma (8-2).
Tiffany Clarke had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Jasmine Lister added 16 points and nine assists. Kady Schrann was 3 of 3 from three-point range, finishing with 11 points.
Vanderbilt led 37-27 at halftime and withstood a push from Oklahoma. The Sooners pulled within nine at the 3:59 mark, but Clarke hit a layup, Foggie hit back-to-back baskets and Lister hit four free throws to build the lead to 18.
Sports, Pages 20 on 12/17/2012