Lady Vols basketball forward Janiah Barker is listed as out on the initial SEC injury report for No. 17 Tennessee’s matchup with No. 12 Kentucky.
Barker’s status for the Jan. 22 game at Food City Center (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) has been in question since she left the fourth quarter at Alabama on Jan. 18 and did not return. It appeared that she got hit in the face before she went to the ground, visibly in pain. She remained on the ground for a few minutes and was able to walk off the court on her own power.
Advertisement
Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell didn’t have an update on Barker after the 70-59 win over the Tide, and she didn’t provide an update when she met with the media on Jan. 21.
Kentucky forward Teonni Key, who has missed the past four games after dislocating her elbow, also was listed as out.
Caldwell said Jan. 21 that if Barker is out against Kentucky (17-3, 4-2 SEC), it’ll be a similar situation as when Tennessee’s leading scorer, Talaysia Cooper, was out for a game.
“You can’t ask for it from one person, everyone’s going to have to kind of raise the bar,” Caldwell said.
Barker had 10 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes before leaving the Alabama game. She also had two assists and two blocks in the first ranked win of the season for Tennessee (13-3, 5-0).
Advertisement
Barker has been an integral piece of the Lady Vols’ success this season. She is averaging 14.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.2 steals, shooting 47% from the field and 31.1% on 3-pointers.
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: subscribe.knoxnews.com/offers
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Janiah Barker on SEC injury report, out for Lady Vols game vs Kentucky
