It’s no secret that Talaysia Cooper is the engine that makes Lady Vols basketball go, but in a near-loss to Stanford on Dec. 3, she was the freight train dragging it to victory.
The 6-foot guard gave everything she had and affected every aspect of the game, and No. 17 Tennessee needed every ounce of it in an ugly 65-62 win over Stanford (8-2) at Maples Pavilion. Cooper led the team in scoring, assists and steals, and she hit the game-winning layup as the Lady Vols (6-2) avoided overtime in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
Advertisement
The redshirt junior was poetry in motion as she showed the skills that make her one of the few guards in the country to be a legitimate defensive player of the year candidate. She had a career-high 10 steals, plus 19 points, six assists, two rebounds and block. She had three steal-and-scores in the first quarter alone.
“I just watch the ball and see what they’re doing with it. It’s just an instinct thing, too,” Cooper said in her postgame interview on ESPN2. “Our best offense is our defense, because we just score in transition.”
The Lady Vols scored 25 of their points off of 30 forced turnovers, which tied for the most in Stanford’s program history.
Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said on the Lady Vol Radio Network that if Cooper hadn’t been at the top of their full-court press to steal the ball as much as she did, the Lady Vols probably would have suffered a second straight blowout (they lost 99-77 at UCLA on Nov. 30).
Advertisement
“Her and I had talked about that before the game of, she really makes our team go on the defensive end,” Caldwell said. “When she is up and she is pressuring and she is playing, then our whole entire team is rotating better. We look better.”
Freshman point guard Mia Pauldo said it helps that Cooper is another primary ball handler who can free up other guards and find them for open shots. Pauldo had a career-high 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting, plus three rebounds, two steals and an assist.
“Man, she’s a phenomenal player,” Pauldo said on the Lady Vol Radio Network. “You just got to see her play in person.”
Cooper’s shooting, and her defense that led to easy points in transition, were some of the only ways Tennessee could score at times. The Lady Vols had just three assists other than Cooper’s, and shot 5-for-26 on 3-pointers. They didn’t shoot above 36% and didn’t score more than 16 points in a quarter until the fourth, when they started sharing the ball more.
Advertisement
Tennessee had a nine-point lead four minutes into the third quarter, but its offensive droughts allowed the Cardinal to claw their way back into the game. They went on a 16-1 run in the third quarter to take a five-point lead. When the Lady Vols retook the lead by five, they didn’t score for three minutes at the end of the fourth quarter, nearly blowing the game.
Stanford almost forced overtime when Nunu Agara got an offensive rebound and putback after Lara Somfai missed two free throws, tying the game 62-62 with 11 seconds left.
“I mean the end of that game, we handed it right to them,” Caldwell said. “So we’re lucky to be in the situation we are, coming out of here with the win.”
Against better competition, especially in the SEC, Tennessee can’t rely this heavily on Cooper to save it. But she was enough this time to give the Lady Vols a win to start December, and more time to find their footing before the real competition arrives.
Advertisement
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How Talaysia Cooper fueled Tennessee to narrow win at Stanford
