Graves nets 23 as No. 12 Tennessee tops No. 10 Georgia in women’s hoops

Knoxville, TN, United States (4E Sports) – Freshman forward Bashaara Graves fired a career-high 23 points as No. 12 Tennessee waxed hot in the second half en route to a 79-66 upset win over No. 10 Georgia Sunday at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Down 42-40 at the break, the Lady Vols scored nine straight points in the second half to take the lead and never looked back for their fourth consecutive win and 11th victory in 14 outings.

Graves hit eight of 11 shots for most points by a Lady Vols’ freshman since Meighan Simmons had 23 against Stanford on Dec. 19, 2010. Graves has scored in double-figures in 12 of her 14 games as a freshman.

“It’s very good, but we need to have that at the beginning of the game like we did at halftime. Just coming out with a bang and getting the win. We need to play like we know we can all the time,” Graves said after the win.

Graves also grabbed eight boards, Simmons added 16, Jasmine Jones had a career-high 12 markers and Taber Spani scored 11 for the Lady Vols.

Tennessee moved to 6-2 against ranked teams this season. It was also the Lady Vols first win over a Top 10 team this season and first since thrashing No. 7 Kentucky last February.

Jasmine James scored 18 and Khaalidah Miller added 14 as the Lady Bulldogs fell to 13-2 and 1-1 in the SEC.

The Lady Vols outscored Georgia, 39-24 in the second half and held the Lady Bulldogs to just 29 percent shooting from the field, including 25 percent from 3-point range.

Tennessee opened the second half with nine consecutive points to take a 49-42 lead and never looked back.

The Lady Bulldogs cut the deficit, 52-50, on a jumper by Jasmine Jones with 12:24 left in the half but Tennessee responded with a 14-3 run to extend its lead to 66-53, with 8:53 left.

The lead ballooned to 19 with three minutes left on Simmons’ fourth 3-pointer of the game.

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