#15 Tennessee were looking to remain undefeated as they held their SEC home opener on Sunday against #9 Oklahoma. Head Coach of Oklahoma Jennie Baranczyk made a note in the post game press conference that she intentionally wore purple for her first time in Knoxville which is one of the main color of Alzheimer’s awareness which is the disease that former Lady Vol head Coach Pat Summitt suffered from. Tennessee trailed by as much as 19 to the Sooners and made a run at the very end of the game. However it wasn’t enough, the Lady Vols fell just short of completing a 19 point comeback and fall to the Sooners 87-86.
Tennessee was led by four players in double-digit scoring with Jewel Spear scoring 28 points. Samara Spencer and Talyasia Cooper had 16 points a piece and Ruby Whitehorn rounded out the scoring with 13. The Sooners also had four double-digit scorers with Payton Verhulst having the most with 16 points. Raegan Beers was behind her with 13 points, Reyna Scott and Liz Scott had 11 points a piece.
Tennessee takes their first loss of the season and first loss in SEC play. The schedule doesn’t get any favorable for UT as another top 10 ranked team in LSU comes to Knoxville for a Thursday night showdown at 5:30 PM.