Two plays within three seconds of each other as the clock nearly hit zeros summed up how the Lady Vols secured a 90-80 win Thursday night on the road at Mississippi State.

Tennessee had built an 18-point cushion, but no lead is safe in the SEC, especially on the road, and the Bulldogs started the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run to trail by just five points. A basket by Janiah Barker and a steal and score by Mia Pauldo made it 74-65 to add a bit of breathing room, and it was those same two players who defined the end of the game.

An emphatic block and defensive rebound by Barker with 31 seconds left in the game sealed the outcome, and Pauldo got downcourt in a hurry and had a wide-open layup that would have added two more points to her career-high 26 points. Instead, she passed the ball to Nya Robertson on the other side of the basket with 28 seconds left for the assist.

Pauldo, a freshman, was playing in just her third career SEC game with back-to-back road matchups. She also added three assists, two steals and two rebounds.

“The thing I was most proud of for her is she had a chance to go get 28 at the end, and she passed the ball,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said. “That’s just such a selfless play, such a senior play. A freshman normally would be thinking about her career, and she wasn’t. And I love that about her.”

Barker notched 18 points with six boards for Tennessee (11-3, 3-0), while Talaysia Cooper tallied 14 points and six boards, and Zee Spearman added 14 points and five boards. Tennessee tallied 16 assists with five by Cooper and four by Barker and shot 50.7 percent for the game.

Kharyssa Richardson and Madison Francis led Mississippi State (14-3, 1-2) with 22 points each, while Destiny McPhaul tallied 14 points. The Bulldogs shot 45.5 percent for the game.

The Lady Vols have started 3-0 in SEC play and will host Arkansas this Sunday, Jan. 11, at 2 p.m. at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center for the “We Back Pat” game before getting on the road again to play at Alabama on Jan. 18.

“Good to get a win on the road,” Caldwell said. “We know it’s a tough environment, and we know that you’ve got to win on the road in the SEC. It was good to do that.”

Barker filled the box score, but the stat she liked was just two turnovers after turning loose of the ball too often in the first two SEC games.

“I’m really proud of myself with two turnovers; that is improvement for me,” Barker said. “I’m happy because I’ve been turning the ball over a lot. I’m staying proud of myself for that.”

Caldwell noted, “She was great. She and I watched film. I challenged her to stop turning the ball over, play an easier way of basketball and stop trying to force it. And she did that, and she cut her turnovers down. She was more efficient, a really great game for her.”

Pauldo tied for the eighth-most points scored in a game by a freshman in Lady Vols history. Some of the other names on list are Tamika Catchings atop it with 35 points, Candace Parker, Rennia Davis, Shyra Ely and Angie Bjorkund.

“It’s huge, and we needed her tonight,” Caldwell said. Without her, we probably don’t come away with a win.”

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.