The Lady Vols dropped a heartbreaker on Sunday in a game that featured nine lead changes and five ties, with the Rebels taking an 80-75 victory in The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss.
Senior Jewel Spear was the game's top scorer, pouring in a season-high 30 points for Tennessee (12-7, 5-2 SEC) on 64.7 percent shooting from the floor. Fifth-year senior Rickea Jackson also was in double digits with 15 points and six rebounds on the day.
Ole Miss (15-5, 5-2 SEC) was led by Marquesha Davis with 25 points. Madison Scott managed a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Kharyssa Richardson and Kennedy Todd-Williams were also in double figures with 21 and 11, respectively.
Jackson netted the first points of the game on a layup, but Ole Miss scored on back-to-back possessions to lead by a 4-2 count two minutes into the game. Spear tied it up on the next play before a Davis layup reclaimed the lead for the Rebels.
That would be the first of six lead changes spanning a minute and a half until a jumper by Jackson sparked a 10-2 UT run that pushed the Lady Vols ahead 19-12 by the 4:04 mark. Ole Miss rallied back within two with 2:33 to go in the first, but UT outscored the Rebels 8-4 to end the quarter with a 27-21 advantage.
Davis hit the first points of the second quarter, as UM strung together an 8-2 run to tie the game at 29-all with 6:21 left in the half. Karoline Striplin and Kaiya Wynn responded with four straight points for UT.
The Lady Vols maintained that four-point advantage through the 2:15 mark when Madison Scott and Kennedy Todd-Williams combined for six unanswered points to put Ole Miss on top by two with under a minute to go. Jackson hit the last bucket of the half to send the game into intermission with the game knotted up at 39.
The Rebels started the third quarter with a 9-3 run to lead 48-42 two minutes into the half. UM maintained a six-point lead through the 6:00 mark, when Jackson and Spear combined for five points to pull UT within one. Four quick points by Davis put Ole Miss ahead by five at the 4:32 mark, and the teams traded buckets through the end of the period with the Rebels leading 63-57 after three.
Tennessee kicked off the final stanza with a Powell layup and Darby three-pointer to cut the deficit to one, but the Rebels responded with six unanswered points to lead 69-62 with 5:41 left in the game. Spear knocked down her fourth trey of the afternoon 11 seconds later, and Powell and Spear combined to pull the Big Orange within two at 74-72 with 4:01 to play.
An old-fashioned three-point play by Spear with 1:35 to go made it a one-point game, but the Lady Vols never reclaimed the lead as the Rebels closed out the game with a pair of buckets to take the 80-75 victory.
Up next, the Lady Vols will play their fourth road game in their past five contests, traveling to Athens to face Georgia (10-9, 1-5 SEC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
Tennessee produced its best offensive first quarter of the season vs. Ole Miss. The Lady Vols tallied first-frame highs in points (27) and field goal percentage (68.8) vs. the Rebels en route to a 27-21 lead after the opening 10 minutes.
UT's previous highs in the opening stanza in 2023-24 were 26 points in the opener vs. Florida A&M and 56.3 percent shooting at Florida State and vs. Memphis. UT's previous best numbers in SEC play this year included 20 opening-period points at Auburn and vs. Vanderbilt, with 52.9 percent shooting in quarter one vs. Vandy.
Jasmine Powell recorded her third-straight game with five or more assists and sixth occasion in the past 10 contests. She finished with six dimes against the Rebels on Sunday and has recorded 21 over her past three games for a 7.0 apg. average during that span as well as a total of 57 over her past 10 contests to put 5.7 in those match-ups.
Jewel Spear supplied her team a season-high 30 points vs. the Rebels, surpassing her previous 2023-24 best of 21 vs. Kentucky on Jan. 7. It was UT's second 30-plus scoring effort of the campaign, following Rickea Jackson's 31-point effort at Florida State.
Spear's four three-pointers vs. Ole Miss ranked as her top total vs. an SEC foe and her third contest of four-plus this season, including four vs. Wofford on Dec. 19 and five vs. Florida A&M on Nov. 7.
