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Lady Vols beat Liberty with ease; SEC opener at Auburn is next

University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper said her team looked “comfortable” with its offensive scheme Sunday afternoon while making host Liberty “uncomfortable” on the court.

The outcome reflected Harper’s assessment, too.

Rickea Jackson led all scorers with 21 points in her second game back from injury, Tess Darby had career highs with 18 points and six 3-pointers, and the Lady Volunteers won 90-55 in wire-to-wire fashion in Lynchburg, Virginia.

“I felt like our team was really clicking,” Harper said in her postgame news conference. “I thought we were very focused on both ends of the court, and I thought we made Liberty uncomfortable, which helped us.”

Tennessee (7-5) played for the first time since its 85-63 victory against Wofford in Knoxville on Dec. 19. The road win against the Lady Flames (5-10) of Conference USA was the Lady Vols’ last game before opening Southeastern Conference play at Auburn on Thursday, with tipoff set for 8 p.m. Eastern.

The Lady Vols have won three in a row since losing four of five to fall below .500 and out of the rankings, and they settled in from the start at Liberty, scoring the first eight points of the game and leading 25-9 at the end of the first quarter. It was 43-24 at halftime and — after a third quarter in which Tennessee shot 63.6% from the field and 55.6% from 3-point range — 76-43 entering the fourth.

“I thought that was a good game for us getting ready for conference play,” Harper said. “We’re coming off now a couple of wins that gives you some confidence in how we need to play in our conference play.”

Jackson, who played just the first two games of the season before being sidelined by injury for more than a month, shot 9-for-18 from the field with a pair of 3-pointers and matched Tamari Key’s team-high seven rebounds.

“I thought Rickea looked really good,” Harper said. “… I think just her being out on the court gives everybody a lot of confidence in how they can play, and you have to key in on her, you have to game plan when you’re guarding Rickea Jackson, which hopefully gives some other players some opportunities.”

Darby was 6-for-9 from 3-point range as the Lady Vols finished 12-for-30 behind the arc, and she and Jackson were joined as double-digit scorers for Tennessee by Kaiya Wynn (12 points) and Karoline Striplin (10). Wynn’s seven assists were a game high, and Sara Puckett led the team with three blocked shots and had five assists, while Jewel Spear had three of Tennessee’s 12 steals.

Harper went 10 deep as the Lady Vols’ bench outscored Liberty 44-16.

The Lady Flames were led by Emma Hess (12 points) and Asia Boone (11), and Bella Smuda had nine rebounds and three blocks.