In 23 games heading into Monday, a marquee win has evaded Tennessee, but not because of a lack of opportunities.
The Lady Vols have played one of the most difficult schedules in women's college basketball, facing seven teams currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 20 in their non-conference slate alone, including No. 5 UConn last week.
Tennessee was winless in all of those matchups, but had a chance on another big stage Monday night, putting its previously perfect SEC record on the line against No. 3 LSU at the Pete Maravich Center.
Like so many performance against elite teams this season, the Lady Vols were able to trade blows with the Tigers, but the final was all too familiar with LSU winning 76-68.
In a game featuring two of the league's best rebounding teams, Tennessee led the way at time but LSU finished with the edge at 45-38.
Jordan Walker led Tennessee with 19 points while Rickea Jackson remained consistent in her production, finishing with 17 points and eight rebounds. Coming off of a 27-point performance against UConn, Jordan Horston scored 11 points, under her season average of 15.7.
For LSU (21-0, 9-0 SEC), Alexis Morris scored a game-high 31 points and Angel Reese recorded a double-double with 19 points and 17 rebounds.
The two teams went back-and-forth in the first quarter with Tess Darby and Walker accounting for six of Tennessee's 12 points with two 3-pointers in the period.
In a stretch that went over a minute, Jackson scored six-straight points for the Lady Vols. Her jumper gave them their first lead at 18-17, but LSU rattled off a 9-0 run with scores from Morris and Sa'myah Smith before Lest-Tear Poa capped it with a 3-pointer to swell the Tigers' lead to 32-23.
Tennessee (16-8, 8-1) closed the gap to close out the half as Jasmine Franklin connected on a layup and Darby knocked down another three to cut the deficit to five at halftime.
LSU appeared to be in control less than three minutes into the third quarter, scoring 8 unanswered points to pull ahead 48-34, but Tennessee responded a Hollingshead three and a pair of Jackson layups. A Sara Puckett three ended the period and brought the Lady Vols within three heading into the fourth.
Tennessee stayed within striking distance in the final quarter, trailing by just a point at the 7:43 mark, but turnovers and foul trouble caused the Lady Vols to unravel, leading to LSU taking a double-digit lead off of an 11-0 run.
That run didn't do Tennessee in for good. The Lady Vols responded by outscoring LSU 10-4 to get the Tigers lead down to six behind their full court pressure, which caused problems for LSU.
The Tigers closed out the win at the free throw line.
Tennessee returns to Knoxville to play Ole Miss on Thursday at Thompson-Boling Arena. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network Plus.
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