LEXINGTON, Ky. — Heading into the final week of the regular season, the Lady Vols' largest margin of defeat this season was just seven points to second-ranked South Carolina.

Tennessee's trip to Kentucky set a new worst mark by quite a bit in its 82-58 loss in Lexington.

This was tied for the Lady Vols' (21-7, 8-7) seventh-largest defeat in program history.

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This isn't the first time Kenny Brooks has had significant success against Kim Caldwell, either. The coaches met in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament a year ago when Brooks was with Virginia Tech and Caldwell was with Marshall.

While the talent gap was much different a year ago, Brooks' Hokies won 92-49.

In that game, Clara Strack dominated. She scored 17 points on 7-for-7 shooting. Following Brooks to Kentucky (22-5, 11-4 SEC), she was just as effective. This time, she dropped 23 points on a perfect 11-for-11 shooting.

Also dominating was Teonni Key. The younger sister of former Lady Vol Tamari Key, she went for 18 points to go with 10 rebounds in a double-double performance.

As a team, Tennessee had no answer for the Wildcats. Kentucky shot 51.5% from the field.

For the Lady Vols, the only player in double figures was Talaysia Cooper. She notched 25 points on 11-for-22 shooting. As a team, Tennessee finished shooting 31.1% from the field and 20.7% from range.

It was another ugly start to the game for Tennessee. The Lady Vols' defense struggled to string together stops while the offense rarely saw shots drop.

Kentucky jumped out to an 11-4 lead before Samara Spencer cut the lead down to just five with 5:15 on the clock. However, that was the last offense Tennessee got for nearly five full minutes. The next make was a Talaysia Cooper triple with 21 seconds to play in the first quarter.

In this time, the Wildcats built their lead which settled at 11 at the end of one frame.

It was the same story in the second quarter. There was no run of more than five points for Kentucky in the second period but its continued pressure piled up the score.

The halftime score sat at 45-26. It was Strack with 17 points on 8-for-8 shooting in the first half. For Tennessee, Cooper led the way with eight points on 3-for-8 shooting.

The break at halftime didn't do much in changing the direction of the game, though. The Lady Vols were outscored by 10 in the frame to push the lead up to 29 points in the favor of the Wildcats.

Tennessee would empty the bench in the fourth quarter. Favor Ayodele and Avery Strickland got early run in the quarter as the game was already decided.

The Lady Vols won the quarter 13-8 thanks to a 7-0 run to finish the game when things were winding down.

The Lady Vols have just one game left in the regular season.

Tennessee will play its Senior Day against Georgia at noon ET on SEC Network. More information on Senior Day festivities will be available later this week.

The following week, the Lady Vols and rest of the conference will travel to Greenville, South Carolina for the SEC Tournament. The event begins on Wednesday but Tennessee's seed is yet to be determined.

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