Colorado State University Athletics
Wednesday, December 11
Knoxville, TN
5 PM MT
Colorado State
5-6,0-2Mountain
41
at
79
Tennessee
8-1,0-0SEC
1
2
3
4
F
Colorado State
10
8
14
9
41
Tennessee
15
21
25
18
79
Learning Experience for Rams in 79-41 Loss to No. 23 Tennessee
12/11/2019 7:13:00 PM | Women's Basketball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – In front of a crowd of 7,024 inside of Thompson-Boling Arena, the Colorado State Rams fell to the No. 23-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols, 79-41, on Pat Summitt Court Wednesday evening.
The Rams dropped to 5-6 overall on the season, while the Lady Vols improved to 8-1 overall. Tennessee, the nation's No. 2 team in defensive rebounds and field-goal percentage defense, used just that to thwart the Rams as CSU was held to 21.2-percent shooting and were outrebounded 57-24. In order to best UT's length that registers as the tallest team in school history, CSU tried to use the long ball compiling an arena record 44 three-pointers.
From the start, graduate forward Makenzie served as the fuel, finishing with six steals and four assists – a career high and season high respectively. Otherwise, redshirt-junior Megan Jacobs led the Rams in scoring with 10 points and on the boards with five rebounds.
"Man did we shoot a lot of 3s," head coach Ryun Williams said. "I think we had great looks. I liked our execution a large part of the night. We knew that we needed to shoot the three-ball well in order to give ourselves a chance. Again, we had lots of quality shots, but it was just a difficult shooting night for us. I didn't think we were going to outshoot them number-wise, but we did and that is a great takeaway from this. We only had seven turnovers. I wish we could have given them a closer game, but it was great competing here."
The Lady Vols jumped out to an early 9-2 lead thanks to seven unanswered, but Makenzie Ellis ignited a 6-0 run by swooping in blindside for a steal and then assisted Megan Jacobs and Andrea Brady on back-to-back 3s. By quarters end, CSU trailed 15-10, holding Tennessee under its first quarter average of 20.4 points, typically their hottest frame.
The fast start that the Lady Vols' faithful is used to came in the second, starting with an 8-2 run and then continuing with nine unanswered. The Rams had stops and chances in the second but could not lift the lid on the basket. Colorado State were shooting 7 of 33 for 21.2 percent at the half compared to Tennessee who connected on eight more buckets in the same number of shots for 45.5 percent, leading to a 36-18 advantage.
Ellis started off the scoring in the second half with a turnaround shot off the glass for her first points of the game despite a disruptive first half on the defensive end. A minute later, Jacobs finally broke her dry spell from deep with her first 3 of the game to pull it to a 14-point game. The Lady Vols then woke up and went on a 18-0 run to further strengthen their position.
The fourth quarter played out much like the rest of the game en route to Tennessee securing the win. The Vols leading scorer, Rennia Davis, proved troublesome with a game-high 23 points, including eclipsing the 1,000-point career mark – a group of just 46 other former Lady Vols.
All healthy and traveling Rams logged minutes on Pat Summitt Court, including freshman Alexis Eberhardt hitting a 3 as time expired.
"It is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Jacobs said. "I'm grateful that Colorado State and Tennessee put this together and we could come down here. I have been playing basketball since I was six, so this is an awesome opportunity. I had some family and friends come out and watch, so I'm just very grateful."
Next
The Rams return home to play Mississippi Valley State at Moby Arena this Saturday at 2 p.m. MT.
For More on Colorado State Women's Basketball follow: Twitter – CSUWBasketball | Instagram – csuwbasketball | Facebook – @CSUWBasketball
The Rams dropped to 5-6 overall on the season, while the Lady Vols improved to 8-1 overall. Tennessee, the nation's No. 2 team in defensive rebounds and field-goal percentage defense, used just that to thwart the Rams as CSU was held to 21.2-percent shooting and were outrebounded 57-24. In order to best UT's length that registers as the tallest team in school history, CSU tried to use the long ball compiling an arena record 44 three-pointers.
From the start, graduate forward Makenzie served as the fuel, finishing with six steals and four assists – a career high and season high respectively. Otherwise, redshirt-junior Megan Jacobs led the Rams in scoring with 10 points and on the boards with five rebounds.
"Man did we shoot a lot of 3s," head coach Ryun Williams said. "I think we had great looks. I liked our execution a large part of the night. We knew that we needed to shoot the three-ball well in order to give ourselves a chance. Again, we had lots of quality shots, but it was just a difficult shooting night for us. I didn't think we were going to outshoot them number-wise, but we did and that is a great takeaway from this. We only had seven turnovers. I wish we could have given them a closer game, but it was great competing here."
The Lady Vols jumped out to an early 9-2 lead thanks to seven unanswered, but Makenzie Ellis ignited a 6-0 run by swooping in blindside for a steal and then assisted Megan Jacobs and Andrea Brady on back-to-back 3s. By quarters end, CSU trailed 15-10, holding Tennessee under its first quarter average of 20.4 points, typically their hottest frame.
The fast start that the Lady Vols' faithful is used to came in the second, starting with an 8-2 run and then continuing with nine unanswered. The Rams had stops and chances in the second but could not lift the lid on the basket. Colorado State were shooting 7 of 33 for 21.2 percent at the half compared to Tennessee who connected on eight more buckets in the same number of shots for 45.5 percent, leading to a 36-18 advantage.
Ellis started off the scoring in the second half with a turnaround shot off the glass for her first points of the game despite a disruptive first half on the defensive end. A minute later, Jacobs finally broke her dry spell from deep with her first 3 of the game to pull it to a 14-point game. The Lady Vols then woke up and went on a 18-0 run to further strengthen their position.
The fourth quarter played out much like the rest of the game en route to Tennessee securing the win. The Vols leading scorer, Rennia Davis, proved troublesome with a game-high 23 points, including eclipsing the 1,000-point career mark – a group of just 46 other former Lady Vols.
All healthy and traveling Rams logged minutes on Pat Summitt Court, including freshman Alexis Eberhardt hitting a 3 as time expired.
"It is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Jacobs said. "I'm grateful that Colorado State and Tennessee put this together and we could come down here. I have been playing basketball since I was six, so this is an awesome opportunity. I had some family and friends come out and watch, so I'm just very grateful."
Next
The Rams return home to play Mississippi Valley State at Moby Arena this Saturday at 2 p.m. MT.
For More on Colorado State Women's Basketball follow: Twitter – CSUWBasketball | Instagram – csuwbasketball | Facebook – @CSUWBasketball
Team Stats
CSU
UT
FG%
.212
.508
3FG%
.182
.300
FT%
.625
.846
RB
24
57
TO
7
17
STL
14
4
Game Leaders
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
8
FGM
2
3FGM
2
FTM
2
Pts
6
FGM
2
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Pts
6
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's BasketballG/F
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