Make your own Live Game Thread: Vanderbilt @ Tennessee

Stricklen with a running jumper and Kelley Cain making her first shot inside. No rebounds for Vandy yet.

She’s an offensive force, but Vandy is running her ragged right now. Rotations, moving her assignments out, forcing her to defend off the dribble, etc. It’s a smart move, and I’d look for Summitt to respond by giving Cain more breathers than she’d get otherwise.

Just passing through myself, though. Have fun!

Vandy’s picked up a three and a breakaway layup to pull within two. The answer? Courtesy of Kelley Cain. Vandy’s answer: get Marsh (Cain’s defender) out on the perimeter. It works, the three hits – and the next one does as well. 13-2 run, Vandy’s up 1.

Sydney Smallbone (?) started at PG. Haven’t heard much from her; I guess she was injured.

Bjorklund’s 2-for-2. Vandy’s in the lead again.

Have Cain cover Wirth. Vandy’s running a 4-guard lineup right now, but Wirth is the lone forward. Cain can’t get out on the perimeter to defend Marsh, so protect her weaknesses.

As I say this, Cain picks up her 2nd, so that might be it for the half. I guess I have to pay attention to other people now. ;)

Three offensive boards for Vandy in the same possession. Fortunately, it all goes for naught – and Bjorklund is now 3-for-3. This looks good.

We’re still down 1 at the 8:30 mark.

Tennessee has been launching balls over the heads of 2 to 3 Vandy defenders to get it down low – and it’s been working. The turnovers have been off strips and bad plays.

I’m not sure I buy it yet; going 3-1 in the next 4 means I’d buy it.

It won’t matter enough to get in the bonus in the first half, but Tia Gibbs (one of their bench kids) has 2 fouls now.

I’m on my way out the door, but I checked in and voila!

Enjoy the game. May the Ladies be as determined as you. :-)

Get smart about that. It’ll happen all game.

She came back in for about 30-35 seconds, got tied up on the defensive end, and is now out for the next 10-12. Honestly, I don’t think it’ll matter if Glory Johnson can assert herself.

Someone tell Orange Natoin there’s a game tonight?

Pretty terrible sequence all around. Tennessee’s wasting most of the shot clock on offense and forcing up bad shots; this is the second possession in a row that happened.

Glory Johnson with the offensive rebound following a missed FT. Drew a foul about 15 seconds later, too.

Tennessee will have the last shot of the first half and the game’s tied. More analysis coming up once the half is over.

Tennessee came out strong, jumping out to a large lead early. Bjorklund’s shot well from beyond the arc – heck, the team’s shot well from beyond the arc at 41.7%. They’re dishing, and foul trouble is mostly limited (Cain’s the only player with more than 1).

The nice part: aside from Vandy’s 13-2 run, they’ve looked in it. They didn’t make a FG in the last 6+ minutes of the half, but Vandy didn’t take the game over when that happened.

They’re winning the rebounding battle 21-12, which according to Kara Lawson means they’re not winning the rebounding battle. Huh.

They haven’t made a shot in the last 6+ minutes. Cain has 3 fouls. They’re still passing into obvious traps. Defensive lapses have led to a very obvious 9 Vanderbilt points. In other words, it’s not anything that we haven’t seen before, but it doesn’t seem as pronounced as it’s been against other opponents. Maybe that’s because Vanderbilt isn’t quite in the same tier of opponent.

There’s space to move around on the interior, so whether it’s Fuller, Cain, or Glory, I don’t particularly care. There should be 15-20 points we can get there.

Stop the telegraphed passes around the perimeter.

On defense, switching off is fine, but protect Cain, especially early if she gets PT. Keep her on the interior, and if Vandy turns around and puts 5 gals on the perimeter, so be it. They can’t make all of them.

One on Risper, one on Mooney. That’ll be three on Mooney, although I suspect I’m wrong with that assignment. Tennessee’s up 3.

6 points in the paint so far.

3 fouls on Vandy (Wirth just picked up her 2nd), but Stricklen picked up one on a charge. I think I might’ve missed a fourth there, but so did the announcers.

That means Cain (and possibly Johnson) have three for Tennessee; Mooney and Gibbs have three for the Lady ’Dores.

Foul trouble: it’s whats for dinner.

Three of Vandy’s 5 offensive rebounds came on the same possession. Aside from that, they’ve been shutdown; 2 offensive boards for Vandy in 23 minutes.

No idea why. Probably was annoyed that Risper got whacked after pulling down an offensive board, but the board got picked up by Bjorklund.

Tons of foul calls, the T on Vandy’s coach, and now a completely missed out-of-bounds call in Vandy’s favor. Of course they score off the gift.

Speaking of gifts, another Lady Vol turnover. I don’t want to know how bad this is; Vandy’s on a 7-0 run and they’re up 1.

I think we’re at 5 for Vandy and 4 for Tennessee, but I’m not sure. Really, no impressions at the under-12 other than the refs need to take it easy. This has been the kind of foul-happy whistlefest I thought we were done with now that Ron Cherry was done with the stripes.

What on earth? Fouls on Wirth and Glory; Wirth has 4, Glory has 3. That’s not a bad trade.

We’re up 7. Kelley Cain shoots one when we’re back. What’s changed? A couple of Vandy turnovers, a couple of missed Vandy shots, and we’re going inside again. I’m sure I missed a few interior points in there, but Cain can definitely add 4 to that total I had before.

This is the good Tennessee.

That’s one player on either side with 4, and two on both sides with 3. What a mess.

After getting an outlet following an offensive board (by Cain), she sits on the ball, gets trapped, and doesn’t call timeout. Instead she sends it into the hands of a Vandy player – three ball.

Nobody was watching her on the inbounds, so she just bounces it off the Vandy defender’s back. Unfortunately, she missed the ensuing layup, but that was slick.

This time they get bailed out due to a Vandy foul, but this can’t continue.

Finally get a foul update – 9 on Vandy. Kelley Cain to shoot.

It’s better than 2-for-1.

She’s now 7-for-8. 14 points.

Slacker.

10 for Vandy (Risper on the call), Cain to shoot. 1-for-2.

BUT: offensive board, Stricklen hits a 3! We’re up 6, 5 minutes to go.

Out of position on the board attempt. 7 points, 6 boards, and a block. Quality game from her off the bench.

I’ll have to give you her line after the game’s over. This is impressive.

Tennessee’s up 8. We’re close here. Real close.

That’s 5 3s for her. We’re up 11, 2 minutes to go.

This is huge. Stricklen to shoot 2.

This ….feels like the team grew up in a hurry.