The Lady Vols, scrappy as ever, lost to No#1 Stanford on Sunday, December 23, in the Thompson-Boling Arena before a crowd of 13,016.

Holly Warlick’s team battled hard, but lost 73-60. The Lady Vols scored only 31.9 percent from the floor and on made 4-of-18 three pointers.

Bashaara Graves led UT with 15 points and had 12 rebounds for the fourth double-double of her freshman career. Meighan Simmons netted 12 points, Cierra Burdick and Ariel Massengale dropped in 11 each.

This was an especially hard loss for the Lady Vols after losing to Baylor on Tuesday night.

Stanford forward Chiney Ogwumike had 21 points and a career-high 19 rebounds for the undefeated Stanford Cardinals. This win was only the second at Knoxville in 13 tries. The Lady Cardinals had not won in Knoxville since an 82-65 victory on Dec. 15, 1996.

Tennessee coach Holly Warlick questioned her team’s effort after the game and was more disappointed in this performance than she was after a 76-53 loss at No. 3 Baylor on Tuesday.

“This will change,” Warlick said. “As coaches, we’ll make some changes too. It’s time to grow up.”

Stanford’s Amber Orrange scored 14 points. Toni Kokenis and Bonnie Samuelson each added 11 points and Joslyn Tinkle had 10 points for the Cardinals, who host No. 2 Connecticut in their next game Dec. 29.

“The most important thing now is that we keep improving and stay healthy,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We’ve got great leadership and great chemistry. I’m hoping that we’ll be playing better in March and April.”

Next week the Lady Vols will face Davidson on Dec. 28 and Rutgers on Dec. 30. Both games will be played in Thompson-Boling Arena.

By Nancy Morris