Postgame Notes: UT 54, Wichita State 51

Dec. 16, 2014

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Number of Interest

Here are a few numbers of interest:

» Alexa Middleton shot 4-for-4 and had her fourth game with at least 10 points.

» Burdick earned a career-high 17 rebounds and added 10 points for her third double-double of the season.

» The Lady Vols outrebounded the Shockers by a margin of 21, which is the third largest rebounding margin.

POSTGAME NOTES

THE SERIES

This marked the first meeting between UT and Wichita State. UT improves to 1-0 vs. Wichita State and 7-0 vs. teams from the Missouri Valley Conference.
The Lady Vols will face the Shockers at Charles Koch Arena next season.
Tennessee is now 6-0 in Thompson-Boling Arena and extends their winning streak at home to 10-0.

AGAINST FORMER LADY VOLS

Two former Lady Vols and current coaches for Wichita State were honored before the game. Head coach Jody Adams is in her seventh season with the Shockers. She played for UT from 1989-93. Her assistant, Bridgette Gordon, played at UT from 1985-89 and was the second Lady Vol to have a banner of honor hung.
Head coach Holly Warlick is now 5-1 vs. former Lady Vols as head coaches.
Against teams with former UT staff members coaching, Warlick is 9-3. She is now 10-3 against teams with former Lady Vols on staff.
Warlick is 14-3 vs. teams with former Lady Vol players and/or staff members.

FOR STARTERS

Today's starters: Jordan Reynolds, Isabelle Harrison, Cierra Burdick, Bashaara Graves and Andraya Carter.
Reynolds and Graves are the only two Lady Vols to start in every game this season.
This is the seventh different line-up for Tennessee. They are now 1-0 with the group.
Tennessee won the tip for the fifth time this season.
The Lady Vols first score came off a short jumper from Isabelle Harrison.

OFF THE BENCH

The first Lady Vols off the bench were Ariel Massengale and Alexa Middleton.
Middleton shot four-for-four in the game and and added three rebounds from the bench.
Massengale added three points, all from the free point line, including two in the final 5.1 seconds of the game.
Next in were Jaime Nared and Nia Moore.
The Lady Vols bench outscored the Shockers' bench 15-2.

LADY VOLS WIN

With their eighth win of the season, the Lady Vols won with the smallest margin so far this season with only three points between UT and Wichita State. This was the closest win of the season. Prior to this game, UT had not won a game by less than 10 points.
With 5.1 seconds left in the game and up by one, Ariel Massengale hit two clutch free throws to bring the Lady Vols to their final of 54-51.
Isabelle Harrison forced a turnover in the final five seconds to help close the game.

D-D-DEFENSE

With 15.9 seconds left in the first half, the Lady Vols made a big stop forcing a shot clock violation.
In the first half, the Lady Vols earned a score for each of their forced turnovers (5). Despite also having five turnovers, Wichita State could not score off of those.
The Lady Vols made six straight scores on six Shockers' turnovers. UT forced a total of 14 turnovers and earned 16 points off of them.
Andraya Carter led UT in steals for the fifth time this season with a total of three. She has recorded at least one steal in all nine games that she has played this year.

TAKING CHARGES

Isabelle Harrison took a huge charge against Wichita State with a minute left in the game and UT up by only two.
Six different Lady Vols have taken charges this year. Cierra Burdick leads having taken five.

DOUBLE DIGIT SUCCESS

Cierra Burdick was the first Lady Vol to earn double digits in any given category and she did so with rebounds, earning a new career-high of 17. She earned her third double-double of the season and 15th of her career with 10 points.
Freshman Alexa Middleton earned her fourth score of 10-plus this season with a total of 10. It was the third time in the last four games that she has scored 10 or more.
Isabelle Harrison has earned 11 or more points in four out of five games played so far this season. She earned 14 against Wichita State along with nine rebounds, one short of earning a double-double.

C-BIRD EARNS A CAREER-HIGH

With her career-high 17 rebounds, Cierra Burdick was just one rebound short of breaking into the senior record books to tie for the fifth most rebounds by a senior (18) in a game.
Burdick had the most rebounds in a game since both Bashaara Graves and Isabelle Harrison recorded 18 against Georgia Tech on Nov. 11, 2013.

AT THE HALF

The lead changed six different times during the first half including Wichita having their largest lead with four points. To end the half, UT was up 31-28.
Alexa Middleton led UT scorers with nine points going 4-of-4 including a shot from beyond the arc.
The Lady Vols outrebounded the Shockers 24-13 but were tied in turnovers with five apiece.
UT shot 40.6 percent (13-32) while Wichita State shot 40.7 percent (11-27), including 6-12 from beyond the arc.
The UT bench had outscored the Shockers' 10-0.

UP NEXT

Tennessee will stay at home to finish off the last two of a three-game home series starting with #7 Stanford on Saturday, Dec. 20 at 1 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.

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