Punter scores 26, Tennessee beats Florida 83-69

Schofield had 15 of his 17 in the first half on 7-of-11 shooting.

Tennessee made perimeter improvements from its previous outing at Auburn, where the Vols made 3 of 28 shots from the 3-point line. The frontcourt of Dorian Finney-Smith (team-best 13.2 points per game), John Egbunu (11) and Devin Robinson (11) has carried the Gators’ offense for most of the season while Allen, along with point guards Chris Chiozza (21 assists with just two turnovers in the last five games) and Kasey Hill (10 points, four assists and four steals against Georgia) have started to provide them with offensive support.

Tennessee Lady Volunteers forward Bashaara Graves (12) shoots the ball against Florida Gators guard Simone Westbrook (20) during the first quarter at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Ronni Williams put Florida ahead 59-58 with 7:49 left, and Christinaki added a driving layup before Needles’ three-pointer capped the spurt with seven minutes remaining. “We just went out there and played our best”. For much of the game, the Vols flirted with what would have been the largest win since a 35-point victory (91-56) on February 10, 1999 in Knoxville or a 22-point win (104-82) on February 5, 2008 in Knoxville.

Tennessee’s Diamond DeShields comes up against Florida defenders, from left, Tyshara Fleming, January Miller, and Carla Batchelor during an NCAA college basketball game in Knoxville, Tenn., on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. “It’s just our defense is what we’ve got to chime in on and focus on”.

“You can’t blame Holly”, Carter said.

“That was not our game plan”, Warlick said.

Tennessee looks to avoid an 0-2 SEC start by extending its home winning streak to eight games Wednesday night against defensive-minded Florida.

Syracuse beat them by shooting 11 of 25 from the arc. Graves passed Tennessee great Dana Johnson (884) for 13th place on the Lady Vols’ all-time rebounding list. The 53 points were the most Florida had allowed in a half all season, including four games in which they held their opponent under that mark for the game.

“I think that was probably one of the most complete games we’ve played as far as sticking to the gameplan and going with what works”, acting coach Shimmy Gray-Miller said after the win.

While Tennessee was just 4 of 22 from 3-point range, Florida went 9 of 18….Tennessee had 32 offensive rebounds – its highest total since a victory over Troy on December 14, 2013 – yet converted them into only 21 second-chance points. “I wish we could play in those more this season”.

“We said that no matter what happened, we weren’t going to be flawless, but we were going to be tough for 40 minutes”, Gray-Miller said.

– Tennessee assistant coach Rob Lanier told me after the game that senior guard Kevin Punter, “has taken advantage of his opportunity and run with it”. “We know that we beat ourselves a lot, so tonight we wanted to show Coach (Barnes) that we do have that toughness he’s been talking about”.