No. 1 UConn (22-0, 12-0 Big East) missed their first 10 3-point attempts Wednesday night and only led Xavier (10-11, 3-9 Big East) by five after the first quarter.
While the Huskies will have to play better in order to dominate better opponents in the future, No. 15 Tennessee may not be a team to fear entering Sunday’s contest between the two squads in Hartford (12 p.m. ET, FOX).
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The Lady Volunteers got beat badly by Mississippi State (16-6, 3-5 SEC) on Thursday night, losing 77-62 at home. It was just their fourth loss of the season and first in SEC play, but it was an ugly one. They shot 31.9 percent from the field, 4-for-21 (19 percent) from 3 and 60.9 percent from the stripe, including 3-for-10 in the first half. They were outrebounded 50-31 and surrendered 35 fast break points.
The Lady Vols (14-4, 6-1 SEC) led by as much as five (17 seconds into the second quarter), and the game was tied at 26 with 2:31 remaining in the frame before the Bulldogs ended the first half on a 9-0 run. Mississippi State then won the third by eight, consistently finding ways to score layups and also making eight 3s in the contest at a 44.4 percent clip, including a 5-for-9 showing in the second quarter.
Tennessee freshman Mia Pauldo, who had averaged 19.5 points over the previous four games, was held scoreless in the first half (before scoring 13 in the game), and Janiah Barker was held scoreless in the second half after notching 10 in the first. Talaysia Cooper was the only member of the Lady Vols’ Big 3 who brought it in both halves, finishing with 19 points. Pauldo (2-for-5) and Barker (1-for-2) were actually efficient from beyond the arc, but Cooper was 1-for-5 and the rest of the team combined to go 0-for-9.
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It was an uninspiring performance for a team that previously only had one sort-of-bad loss to currently receiving-votes NC State, and that was all the way back in the first game of the season when the Wolfpack were ranked No. 9. Tennessee had since only lost to No. 2 UCLA and No. 7 Louisville, and was expected to be the last legitimate obstacle standing in the way of UConn and a perfect regular season after being one of only three teams to defeat the eventual-champion Huskies last year. Instead, the narrative now becomes an expected blowout.
UConn’s Allie Ziebell tops Sarah Strong, Azzi Fudd with Wednesday performance
Allie Ziebell’s 34 points in what became a 97-39 demolition of Xavier are the most scored by a UConn player in a single game this season. Yes, even Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd haven’t reached that height in the scoring column.
Ziebell did it on a torrid 10-for-14 from deep, tying the program record for made 3s in a game, which is of course a big deal when that program is UConn. And yes, this all came after the Huskies missed 3 after 3 to open the game, including two misses by Ziebell.
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UConn attempted a whopping 13 treys in the opening frame, making just one (from Ziebell with 1:50 to go). Three of Ziebell’s four misses came in the first, as she went on to go 4-for-4 in the second, 1-for-2 in the third and 4-for-4 in the fourth.
With Fudd going 1-for-7, Ziebell surpassed the graduate sharpshooter for the top 3-point efficiency on the team this season. Ziebell now stands at 48.2 percent with 40 makes.
UConn’s top two scorers, by far, are Strong (19.1 points per game) and Fudd (16.7), with freshman Blanca Quiñonez in third at 10.7. UConn in second in the nation with 90.2 points per game due to the help of six other players whose averages range from 7.5 to 4.8: Ashlynn Shade, Ziebell, Serah Williams, KK Arnold, Kayleigh Heckel and Jana El Alfy. Ziebell’s performance on Wednesday was yet another example of the incredible depth the Huskies have in the scoring department.
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Will UConn have less depth than usual?
However, it remains to be seen if UConn will have Quiñonez (shoulder) and Williams (ankle) available for Sunday’s game vs. Tennessee. Both missed the Xavier game, and head coach Geno Auriemma indicated afterward that Quiñonez could be out another three to five days (with the Lady Vols game being four days later). He is planning on playing Williams on Sunday, adding that she really wants to go.
Against a truly deserving No. 15 team, the absence of two impact players would likely be cause for concern for the No. 1 team in the nation. However, Tennessee did not play like a truly deserving No. 15 on Thursday.
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Tennessee’s quest to return to UConn’s heights continues
This is of course a classic rivalry between the first- and second-place programs in all-time national championship count. Tennessee’s 80-76 victory on Feb. 6, 2025, almost exactly a year ago, was particularly impressive given the Huskies’ only other losses came to USC and Notre Dame, two teams that featured First Team All-Americans JuJu Watkins (25 points, six rebounds, five assists, three blocks) and Hannah Hidalgo (29 points, 10 boards, eight helpers, three steals), respectively.
UConn ended their eight-year title drought last season, and had remained a perennial Final Four team over those eight years. Tennessee, on the other hand, achieved their last championship, and Final Four appearance, in 2008. The narrative is generally that they haven’t been the same program since Pat Summitt retired after the 2012 season, but we forget that often-unfairly-criticized Holly Warlick led them to three Elite Eights. Tennessee’s two most recent coaches (Kellie Harper; 2020-24 and Kim Caldwell; 2025-present) have yet to get back there, though Caldwell hasn’t had much of a shot yet and was just one round shy in her first season at the helm—a season in which her Vols did defeat UConn!
We’ll see if some of Caldwell’s patented tough love can inspire her team to avoid spiraling toward a prolongation of their Elite Eight drought.
But, beating UConn in back-to-back seasons is a seemingly insurmountable task.
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Tennessee’s faint hope lies in the two-way talent of Cooper, the incredible upside of physically-gifted Barker and Pauldo’s deep offensive bag. Zee Spearman, who is fourth on the team in scoring this season behind Cooper, Barker and Pauldo at 11.2 points per game, was the Lady Vols’ leading scorer vs. the Huskies last year with 16 points to go along with seven rebounds. Cooper had 11 and eight, plus four assists.
