#22 Lady Vols Dominate Paint, Shoot Past Missouri, 98-53

Thursday, February 12

Knoxville, TN

6:30 P.M. ET

University of Tennessee

16-6,8-2SEC

Missouri

16-11,4-8SEC

Missouri

Tennessee

#22 Lady Vols Dominate Paint, Shoot Past Missouri, 98-53

February 12, 2026 | Women's Basketball

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By: Eric Trainer

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 22/22 Tennessee shot 52 percent from the field and outscored Missouri in the paint by a 54-24 margin to claim a 98-53 wire-to-wire victory in front of 10,489 at Food City Center on Thursday night.

The Lady Vols (16-6, 8-2 SEC), who matched their league victory total from last season and remained as one of only three teams in the conference with two losses or fewer, were led by 22 points from senior forward Janiah Barker. Redshirt junior guard Talaysia Cooper filled the stat sheet with 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals with no turnovers, while junior forward Alyssa Latham, senior guard Nya Robertson and freshman guard Deniya Prawl chipped in 15, 14 and 13, respectively. Prawl and fellow freshman guard Jaida Civil pulled down 10 rebounds each, with Prawl notching her first career double-double.

Missouri (16-11, 4-8 SEC) was paced by Grace Slaughter with 20 points, while Shannon Dowell tossed in 11.

Tennessee jumped out to a quick 5-0 start on a three-pointer by Barker and a layup from Civil and built its lead to 11-4 by the 6:57 mark via a pair of Robertson treys. After Missouri trimmed the deficit to 11-7 with 6:27 left, a Cooper three and jumpers by Mya Pauldo and Barker sent the Lady Vols into the 2:17 media timeout with an 18-9 lead. UT closed out the period with an 11-4 burst, with a pair of Barker free throws on the front end and a last-second three by the senior to run her personal point total to 12 and propel the Big Orange to a 29-13 lead.

The home team started the second stanza in strong fashion as well, forging a 35-13 advantage on buckets by Barker, Cooper and Latham to force a Tigers timeout with 6:41 remaining. After Slaughter hit a free throw out of the break, Tennessee reeled off nine straight on buckets by four different players to make it 44-14 with 3:54 to go. A Prawl layup, Cooper three-ball, Barker put-back and Latham layup helped the Lady Vols take a 53-22 cushion into the intermission.

The Big Orange used an 8-2 burst out of halftime to take a 61-24 lead, capped by a Barker drive and dish to a cutting Latham and a Barker put-back just before the 4:58 media timeout. A 10-3 surge pushed the Tennessee lead to 71-27 with 2:09 to go, with a Cooper trey, a Prawl free throw and layup accounting for the last six. The Lady Vols went on to close out the quarter with a 76-34 advantage.

UT and MU exchanged buckets in the final frame, with a pair of layups by Pauldo and another from Prawl extending the Lady Vol lead to 45, 84-39, with 7:09 left, and Latham's corner three sending her team into the 4:50 media timeout with an 87-44 cushion. A pair of Robertson threes in the closing minutes helped the home team close out the game and improve to 9-1 on The Summitt in 2025-26.

NEXT UP
Tennessee is back in action at home on Sunday, playing a marquee match-up with No. 4 Texas at 3 p.m. ET in Food City Center. The meeting will mean Tennessee has played each of the top four teams in this week's AP Poll and the same squads that participated in the 2025 NCAA Women's Final Four last year in Tampa. The contest will be televised nationally on ABC. The game also will be carried on Lady Vol Radio Network stations with audio streaming available on UTSports.com.

ELECTRIC START
Tennessee got off to a hot start with 29 points in the first quarter, tying the most UT has scored in the first stanza all year with their performance against Arkansas on Jan. 11. The scoring came efficiently, too, with the Lady Vols shooting 55 percent (11-20) from the field. Janiah Barker fueled the offense by scoring 12 in the frame to mark her third double-digit quarter of the year. Barker's performance moved her into second place on the team for most double-digit scoring efforts in a stanza behind Mia Pauldo's four.

HIGH SCORING HALF
UT scored 53 points in first half against the Tigers Thursday night, compiling the most they have scored in an opening half since Jan. 22, 2017, when the Lady Vols had 57 in the first 20 minutes against Vanderbilt at home.

COLLECTIVE EFFORT ON DEFENSE
After grabbing their most steals (15) vs. an SEC opponent this season, the Big Orange now has recorded double digits in steals vs. 14 of 22 opponents in 2025-26 and vs. 32 foes total during the Kim Caldwell era. Tennessee is averaging 11.3 steals per contest and ranks in the top 50 nationally in that category. The Lady Vols were stiff defensively against the Tigers, holding their fifth SEC opponent to fewer than 60 points in the 98-53 victory. They also forced Mizzou into 21 turnovers, marking the 13th time in 2025-26 an opponent has recorded that many miscues.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR DP
Deniya Prawl's 13 points and 10 rebounds resulted in her first career double-double. Ten rebounds was a career best for the freshman, and she scored in double figures for the second time during her career. Fellow rookie Jaida Civil also matched Prawl for the team high in boards, recording a career best as well.

JB LED THE WAY
Janiah Barker's 22 points paced UT in points for the fifth time this season. Barker has now tallied four games with 20+ points this season and nine for her career. It was also Barker's 60th career contest in double figures. The forward was also active on the boards with eight rebounds, just two shy from a double-double.

IN A GROOVE BEYOND THE ARC
By hitting 10 of 29 attempts beyond the arc (34.5 pct.), Tennessee connected on 10 or more three-pointers for the fourth straight game and for the ninth time this season. That total of games with 10+ ranks No. 2 in school history behind last year's 18.