Kaylene Smikle poured in 30 points, and the Lady Vols forced 34 turnovers to take down Middle Tennessee on Thursday night.

“I was really impressed with their response on a short turnaround,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said after the 110-64 win over the Blue Raiders in a post-game video that can be watched HERE. They listened to what we said, and they took it to heart, and they fixed it, and that’s what makes them really fun to coach.”

Tennessee is now 4-0 to start the season with two wins this week after beating New Haven 83-40 on Tuesday. The Lady Vols started slowly in that game and uncharacteristically missed 12 free throws. Tennessee went 15-15 from the line against Middle Tennessee.

“We knew coming into this game, that we wanted to have a good start,” Lady Vols forward Fats Janneh said. “We knew that starting the game strong was going to keep the momentum going the whole game, and I feel like we did a really good job doing that.”

Gabby Minus notched 15 points for Tennessee while, Harissoum Coulibaly tallied 13 points, and Janneh and Naomi White added nine points each.

Xai Whitfield led Middle Tennessee with 16 points, while Mya Kone tallied 11 points, Blair Baugus posted 10 points, Kirston Verhulst notched points on three made three-pointers, and Carsyn Swaney, who is from Maryville, added eight points.

“They forced a bunch of turnovers, and we allowed our fatigue to set in and allowed that kind of stuff to happen,” said Middle Tennessee coach Matt Insell in a post-game video that can be watched HERE. “But true credit to them; they’re playing extremely hard. She’s got a group of kids that really fit what she’s trying to do, and they feed off of that.”

Coulibaly had been relatively quiet in the first three games, but she scored in multiple ways at the rim, off steals and from the arc.

“It was really great to see her be more comfortable on the floor tonight,” Caldwell said. “I think she’s going to continue to grow and grow. She’s been struggling a little bit in games. We have a few players that are still trying to figure it out.”

Caldwell has always said that her teams need November to adjust to the system – and all 14 available players are new – and the wrinkles start to get smoothed out with each game played. The press rotations improved against Middle Tennessee, and the Lady Vols ended up with 30 steals as a team and five each by Smikle and Fauntleroy.

“I was very impressed with our turnovers that we forced and the 30 steals that we had,” Caldwell said. “That’s a great number, and I think that really helped our offense go. Again, it was a team effort, and we don’t get those 30 steals if five people aren’t playing together.”

Tennessee will have three games next week with a trip to Nashville to play Belmont on Tuesday, Nov. 17, and a matchup at home against Radford on Thursday, Nov. 19, in another short turnaround. The busy week ends with a Nov. 22 game against defending national champion UCLA on Sunday, Nov. 22.

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