Lady Vols basketball dominates rematch with Vanderbilt at home, winning by 27 points

Lady Vols basketball went up by more than 20 points in the third quarter, and this time it didn't let Vanderbilt back in the game Sunday at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Tennessee (18-9, 10-2 SEC) was deadlocked with Vanderbilt (11-15, 2-10) at halftime. But then the Lady Vols outscored the Commodores 28-8 in the third quarter to put the game away and win 86-59.

The Lady Vols were led by senior Rickea Jackson, who had 21 points, five rebounds and two blocks, and senior Jordan Horston, who had 18 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

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Marnelle Garraud led Vanderbilt with 16 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Lady Vols defense has slow start

Tennessee gave up 21 points in the first quarter, allowing Vanderbilt to shoot 46.2% and go 2-for-4 from behind the arc.

The Commodores opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run on back-to-back 3-pointers, but Tennessee recovered to go on a 12-2 run. Then multiple Lady Vols got into foul trouble, and five players had two fouls with 2:21 left in the second. By the halftime, five Vanderbilt players had at least two fouls as well.

Vanderbilt fared much better than Tennessee from the free-throw line, though. The Commodores went 12-for-15 in the first half compared to the Lady Vols going 6-for-13.

The Lady Vols didn't make a field goal in the last 3:16 of the second quarter and went into halftime tied up 38-38.

Jackson and Horston take over

When Jackson and Horston were on the court together, they were nearly unstoppable. The offense had better pace and both were aggressive.

But foul trouble hampered Horston from playing more first-half minutes. In her 10 minutes before halftime, Horston had six points, four rebounds and three assists – two of which were to Jackson.

Jackson led all scorers at halftime with 13 points, along with two rebounds and two blocks.

The duo started the second half with Horston getting Jackson the ball and Jackson hitting a fadeaway jumper. The pair continued to dominate the second half and combined for almost half of Tennessee's points.

Vanderbilt can't keep up 3-point shooting

The Commodores were able to shoot 11 3-pointers in the first half and made four of them.

But Vanderbilt only shot three 3-pointers in the third quarter and missed them both. Without its 3-point shooting, Vanderbilt's offense struggled. Tennessee outscored the Commodores 28-8 in the third quarter to take a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter.

Garraud gave the Commodores a flash of hope in the fourth with back-to-back 3-pointers. But Vanderbilt only hit one more, and it couldn't dig itself out of the hole this time.

Up next

Tennessee is on the road again and will face Arkansas on Thursday (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network) at Bud Walton Arena.