Lady Vols complete foreign tour with blowout win over Rome All-Stars
After taking down the Venice All-Stars to open its foreign tour, Tennessee wrapped up the trip with another win.
The Lady Vols blew out the Rome All-Stars on Thursday 100-48 to finish 2-0 in the pair of scrimmages.
Leading the way in the game were Sara Puckett and Rickea Jackson. Both forwards recorded double-doubles while shooting efficiently from the field.
By the end of the match, Puckett had reached 28 points and 11 rebounds. This came on 11-for-16 shooting from the field and 4-for-6 shooting on 3-pointers. Jackson also reached a high mark while totaling 19 points and 12 rebounds.
Providing additional double-digit scoring were Jillian Hollingshead, Tess Darby and Avery Strickland. Hollingshead posted 11 points while Darby and Strickland each finished with 10.
It was a total team effort to push Tennessee to the lopsided win, though. Jasmine Powell added nine assists and six rebounds to accompany her pair of points. Karoline Striplin accounted for eight points while also grabbing eight boards. Kaiya Wynn finished with six points and six rebounds. Walk-on Edie Darby also contributed six points and four assists.
The blowout didn't just come on the scoreboard, though. The Lady Vols outplayed the Rome All-Stars in virtually every category.
In terms of playmaking, the team finished with 25 assists while turning the ball over just six times. On the glass, Tennessee out-rebounded its opponent 57-34. This included 21 offensive rebounds.
Although the squad ran out to a 25-11 lead by the end of the first quarter, the true domination came to close the game. The Lady Vols outscored the Rome All-Stars 31-7 in the fourth quarter. This featured seven made 3-pointers in the final 10 mintues.
"I was really proud of our team," said coach Kellie Harper. "I thought, again, we adapted well to the environment, to how the game was being played, being called. I thought our team was pretty resilient. I thought we did a really good job on the boards on both ends of the court. I thought that was actually a little bit of an improvement from the first day. I thought our defense was very active. That was a point of emphasis for our team. I'm just really proud that they were able to take what we asked them to do and really go out and execute it."
The win pushes the program's record to 25-9 in foreign contests after sweeping the two matches this week.
Now, the team will wrap up its trip with visits to Sorrento, Pompeii and finally Greece before returning home on June 22.
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