Talaysia Cooper paves the way for the Lady Vols to their first win of the season

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – The Lady Vols are 7-0 for the first time since 2021 after picking up their first ranked win of the season against Iowa.

Tennessee got off to a hot start, Iowa turned the ball over three times in the first 90 seconds and the Lady Vols found a way to score in every one of them. This helped Tennessee take an early 8-0 lead.

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Iowa clawed back the deficit, with Hannah Stülke tying the score with less than five minutes left in the first quarter.

From there, the Lady Vols and Hawkeyes continued to trade the lead for the remainder of the contest, that lead changing hands 16 times throughout the meet. Until the end, neither team managed to improve by more than single digits; the two battled it out for 40 minutes.

During this contest, the Lady Vols won the turnover battle by a wide margin and the Hawkeyes dominated the boards. The combination of the two went a long way in keeping this game close. Iowa won the rebounding battle 48-33 but had 30 turnovers, a number from which the Lady Vols were able to score 42 points.

In the first half, Lady Vol guard Ruby Whitehorn helped lead the way, but the star of this half was Talaysia Cooper. After only four points in the first half, she added 19 points after the break and finished the game with 23 points.

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Cooper played a key role in putting the game in Tennessee’s hands in the final minutes, hitting a jumper with 1:34 left in regulation to put the Lady Vols within six. That all but sealed the deal as Tennessee jumped out to its largest lead of the night and a 78-68 victory in the final seconds.

NEXT: The Lady Vols have a week to recover before returning home to face North Carolina Central on December 14th at 2 p.m

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