Vaughns spur second half surge for Arkansas at UT

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Vaughn sisters turned up the Lady Razorback offense in the second half, but the University of Arkansas wasn’t able to overcome the daunting size of the eighth-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers losing 72-54 at Thompson-Boling Arena. Freshman Brittney Vaughn came off the bench to lead Arkansas with 13 points while her older sister junior Rochelle had 10 points. Arkansas, 10-5, lost its fourth SEC game of the season while the Lady Vols move to 11-3 on the year winning their first league game of the year. Off balance on offense in the first half, Arkansas regrouped to win the second half, 37-32. “We kept playing hard in the second half, and when you’re down 40-17 it would be really easy to just throw in the towel,” UA head coach Susie Gardner said. “We weren’t thrilled with the outcome, but we played hard and we never gave up.” Allen hit back-to-back layups to start the second half as Arkansas shot 50% from the field to begin the final period and slice into Tennessee’s 23-point halftime lead. Outscoring the Lady Vols 14-8 to make the score 46-29, Zolman came in to key her second Tennessee surge of the game. Her three-pointer started a 9-2 run to regain momentum. Zolman led Tennessee with 16 points, and felt like she had shaken off her early season slump. “I’ve been in a bit of a slump,” Zolman said. “But it just clicked tonight.” Arkansas would not go away despite four UT players in double digits. A three-pointer from April Seggebruch and a driving layup by Brittney Vaughn cut the UT margin to 18 late in the game, 65-48. Vaughn free throws later got the Lady’Backs to within 16 before UT closed out the game. “The difference in the second half was we played as a team,” Brittney said. “We just pushed the ball and tried to exploit the weaknesses we could find in their defense.” The Lady’Backs took the tipoff for a fast-break three-pointer by Vaughn and a 3-0 advantage. Tennessee went on a 9-0 run as Arkansas struggled to get into its offense before a Vaughn jumper cut the spread to 9-5. Unfortunately it would be another six and a half minutes before Arkansas could score again. The Lady Vols went on a 10-point run before Sarah Pfeifer hit a pair of free throws to make it 20-7. Tennessee sealed the game with the substitution of Zolman near the 10-minute mark. A starter last season, the junior guard hit a trey as soon as she entered the game and went on a personal 10-point scoring spree to start a 16-2 run. “It wasn’t the first shot that beat us,” Rochelle Vaughn said. “It was the second shot. We needed to block out more tonight.” The Lady’Backs found some offense at the end of the half to head into the locker room down 40-17, but shooting 23.1% from the field and a 13-rebound deficit was too much for Arkansas to overcome. For the game, Tennessee outrebounded Arkansas, 46-30, but had its greatest advantage in the lane where the Lady Vols had a 28-6 advantage. Tye’Sha Fluker had 12 points for UT, followed by Shyra Ely with 10 and 11 rebounds. Dominique Redding rounded out the scores with 10.