Cooper connected on 12 of 20 field goal attempts, sinking all seven free-throw tries and netting two of four three-point shots to pace the Lady Vols (4-0). She finished a rebound shy of her second straight double-double and added three assists and a pair of steals. Also in double figures for the Big Orange were Ruby Whitehorn, Sara Puckett and Jewel Spear, who tossed in 13, 12 and 10 points, respectively, as their team drained 14 three-pointers on 36.8-percent accuracy.
The Lady Flames (2-2), who are picked to finish second in Conference USA, got 27 points from 6-foot-6 center Bella Smuda as well as 19 from Avery Mills, 11 from Emma Hess and 10 from Emily Howard. LU finished the game at 51.5 percent from the field, including 50 percent (11 of 22) from beyond the three-point arc.
The Lady Vols came out firing on all cylinders, racing to an 8-0 lead by the 7:43 mark. UT connected on 75-percent accuracy over the first five minutes of the game, with Cooper, Puckett, Spear and Tess Darby knocking down threes in a 4-for-5 shooting flurry from beyond the arc to build a 17-3 cushion by the 4:59 media timeout. UT pushed a scoring run to 11-0 with a Jillian Hollingshead layup and upped the gap to 16, 19-3, with 4:54 to go before Liberty began to find its range. Buckets by Cooper and Whitehorn in the final 11 seconds of the period, though, enabled the Big Orange to close out the opening frame with a 34-15 advantage.
Liberty whittled Tennessee’s advantage to 15 at 38-23 on a three-pointer by Hess with 8:45 to go in the second stanza before the Lady Vols stretched the lead back to 19 and forced the Lady Flames to take a timeout trailing 42-23 with 7:26 remaining. UT expanded the margin further midway through the second period, getting buckets by Whitehorn, Avery Strickland and Alyssa Latham just before back-to-back three-balls by Spear and Hollingshead made it a 25-point game, 50-25, with five minutes to go. LU kept fighting back, getting a 10-0 run to cut the gap to 60-39 with 1:58 left. A pair of Cooper buckets before the half, though, sent Tennessee into the intermission with a 64-43 edge.
The Lady Vols scored first to open the second half on a Zee Spearman three-pointer to make it 67-43, but Liberty followed a 63-percent…
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