The Lady Vols got what every team wants when SEC play starts by securing a win in the opener in a game that changed narratives several times.

Tennessee (9-3, 1-0) started the first day of 2026 with a 76-65 win over Florida (12-4, 0-1) before an enthusiastic crowd of 10,230 at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.

“I was really thankful for the crowd today,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell after the New Year’s Day game. “I think that they willed us to get over the hump. They were great. Their pumped energy into us. We’ve been talking about playing through adversity.

“I thought we did a very good job of that, of playing as a team, sharing the basketball at times in spurts. Beginning of the game, end of the game, when it mattered and we needed it, we shared the ball. But again, proud of the mindset of the team. And again, I think the crowd really helped. And we’ve got to be able to do that on the road in a few days.”

The Lady Vols will play the next two games on the road starting at Auburn this Sunday, Jan. 4, at 4 p.m. Eastern with the broadcast on the SEC Network. That will be followed by a trip to Starkville to play Mississippi State on Jan. 8 and then back home to host Arkansas on Jan. 11 for the “We Back Pat” game.

That is why winning the first one on the schedule is so important in conference play. After that, it comes at a team fast.

Zee Spearman gets to the rim against Florida. (Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics)

Talaysia Cooper led Tennessee with 17 points, while Zee Spearman notched 16 points and completed the double-double with 10 boards. Mia Pauldo added 10 points and went 8-8 from the line, Alyssa Latham tallied nine points and eight rebounds, and Janiah Barker grabbed 12 boards and added nine points.

Liv McGill led Florida (12-4, 0-1), with 32 points, while Jade Weatherby added 11 points.

“It starts in practice,” Cooper said. “We had a couple of great days in practice. But having great practice, consistency, I feel like that led us to keep going in the third quarter.”

Tennessee opened the game with a 17-point lead in the first half, but Florida trimmed 10 points off of it to trail by just seven at halftime. The Lady Vols took good shots, shared the basketball and committed to defensive pressure for the first 15 minutes, before the Gators flipped the script, aided by six consecutive turnovers.

“I think when we get tired, we don’t play together,” Caldwell said. “When we get tired or frustrated at one person, then we start taking bad shots or throwing the ball to the other team.”

The Gators trimmed the lead to start the third quarter and then took a 50-46 lead. In its three losses this season, such a swing led to Tennessee meltdowns. But, led by Cooper, the Lady Vols responded.  Cooper connected twice to tie the game at 50-50. Tennessee forced a turnover, a one-bounce-on-the-rim three fell for Cooper, and Kaniya Boyd made a nice move to the paint for a 55-50 lead. At the end of the third quarter, Tennessee led 55-52. The crowd got every assist.

“I think it helped show that we could do it and really willed us back into it and sparked it,” said Caldwell, whose full media conference can be watched HERE. “We started playing with more juice because it’s human nature. Once you hear a crowd go crazy, you want to give them more.”

Tennessee also won the game on the glass with a 50-25 advantage on the glass. It wasn’t a size difference – the Gators had size, too – but instead a commitment to rebound. Barker nearly finished the double-double.

“We have talked about how we want her to average a double-double, and she’s got to go get rebounds and we’ve been on her about that since she’s got here,” Caldwell said. “She’s slowly continued to build those rebounds, and she was great.

“She went and ripped them down with two hands and if she doesn’t get the rebounds that she got, if Zee doesn’t get the rebounds that she got, then I don’t know that we get the result that we got.”

Tennessee got 19 second-chance points to seven for Florida and won the game by 11 points.

Caldwell has said all season that it starts in practice and how players respond to each other. Latham noted that it’s how the team has practiced lately that matters.

“Having great practices but also having maturity in practice and allowing it to translate into the game when we are down,” Latham said. We didn’t blink an eye, and we just kept playing.”

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.