The Lady Vols got back in the win column Monday night with an 89-44 win over the Screaming Eagles before scattering for the holiday break, an outcome that brightened the mood a bit for the head coach.

“It’s slightly better,” Kim Caldwell said with a smile. “I mean, it’s better. It is. It is better. It’s better for our team morale to come off of that and then, you know, we were hard on them. We didn’t share the ball against Louisville.

“I think we had 32 times where we took a shot off of zero or one passes, which is not acceptable and it’s something we talked about. We had 19 assists tonight and we still didn’t shoot it great. So, it’s a step in the right direction. Makes it a little bit better.”

The sting of the 24-point loss to Louisville last Saturday was still on Caldwell’s mind, but at least she will celebrate her son’s Conor first Christmas this week with a win.

“I can’t wait to kind of see what he does,” she said. “And I already know he’s going to play with everything that’s not a toy. So, I’ve wrapped my head around you’re just going to play with the box and the bows, but I’m excited for him.”

Conor will turn 1 on Jan. 20, 2026, and his anticipated approach to holiday presents seems similar to a cat plopped in wrapping paper, boxes and bows.

The Lady Vols found their cat-like tendencies by forcing 29 turnovers by Southern Indiana and converting those into 36 points, a number that should have been higher.

“I think we’re trying to get ours – putting our head down and we’re going to the rim,” Caldwell said. “We’re trying to drive through five people instead of playing together and trusting that we’re going to get it back.”

The first half started a bit sluggish, but Tennessee found its stride with 52 points in the second half. Nya Robertson was a big part of that as her three consecutive 3-pointers pushed the lead to 53-25 four minutes into the third quarter, forcing a timeout by Southern Indiana.

Robertson led Tennessee, 8-3, with 20 points, while Mia Pauldo notched 19 points, and Alyssa Latham added 10 points. Zee Spearman posted a pair of sevens in points and rebounds.

Ali Saunders led Southern Indiana, 8-3, with 14 points, while Chloe Gannon tallied 11 points, and Shannon Blacher and Sophia Loden added six points each. The Screaming Eagles are a competitive mid-major program and brought a four-game winning streak to Knoxville, including the first two conference wins in the OVC over Little Rock and Morehead State.

Coach Rick Stein opened his post-game press conference by talking about the late Pat Summitt, when he met her and what an honor it was to play at Tennessee. Saunders said she was fully aware of the legendary coach, the players apply Summitt’s Definite Dozen and read two of her books as a team.

That post-game presser can be watched HERE.

Caldwell’s post-game presser with Latham and Pauldo can be watched HERE.

The Lady Vols will return on Dec. 27 to begin preparations for SEC play. Tennessee will host Florida on Jan. 1 at 2 p.m. at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.

“If you look at our season, we’ve had just epic meltdowns in three or four minutes that have cost us all three games,” Caldwell said. “And if we take those meltdowns away, and we are mentally tough enough to come together and play through things, our season looks a little bit different right now.”

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition will be released June 16, 2026.