The Lady Vols were defeated by the Ohio State Buckeyes 87-75. 0:20.
The 5th ranked Tennessee Volunteers were stunned in Columbus by the 14th ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.
It was the first season- opening loss for a top-five team against an unranked team since 2008, when Maryland fell to unranked TCU. The teams had won 69 in a row before Tuesday.
"I wasn't sure who would show up in terms of how good we'd be because we hadn't played anyone yet, but I'm really proud of our kids," Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said after the game. We didn't perform well. We played well in the second half and got ourselves together.
The Lady Vols entered the season as a Final Four contender after winning eight national titles. They hope to return there for the first time since 2008 with the help of fourth-year head coach KellieHarper.
The long-term goal won't be affected by Tuesday's result, but there are some problem areas that need to be cleaned up. The Lady Vols were unable to deal with Ohio State's press and committed 29 turnovers. It was the most turnovers for Tennessee in a long time.
McGuff said that they were relentless in the press and made them uncomfortable.
"We were aware that they were going to press the whole game," Jordan said. We simply couldn't do it.
After falling behind by 12 in the first half, the Buckeyes came back to win 54-34 in the second half and 30-13 in the third.
The more passive we became, the more aggressive Ohio State became. We were unable to get that back.
McGuff said they made some shots. I told them at half time that I liked the shots they were getting. We are getting good shots. We are not making shots that we are capable of making. Continue to play hard in the press. The shots are going to fall.
Jacy had 14 points, eight thefts and seven assists.
In her first game back after a season-ending injury her junior year, the senior guard led the Volunteers with 20 points, while the Minnesota transfer added 19.
It was the second top 25 game of the season. South Dakota State was beaten by a ranked opponent on Monday.
Defending Atlantic 10 tournament champion Massachusetts and Indiana are upcoming opponents for Tennessee. Boston College and Ohio are on the way.
She put her team through a tough schedule in order to grow.
She said that they need to play a tough team. This could have been different if we took care of the basketball for a small stretch. We need to understand the details. Hopefully this will make our basketball team more focused on the task at hand.
It's going to make us better if we can see what we need to work on first. We need to learn from it. I'm not worried. We are not concerned. The game was the first of it's kind.
Ohio State came off winning a share of the Big Ten regular-season title before falling to Texas in the Sweet 16 and now hopes to use Tuesday's win to their advantage.
Mikesell told the Big Ten Network that he thinks they have a "never say die" mentality. We like to be underestimated. I think that we have an incredible team.
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