Lady Vols basketball trailed by two points, and it had six seconds left to win the game or send it to overtime against Texas.
Talaysia Cooper, who scored a game-high 29 points, inbounded the ball to Zee Spearman, who caught the ball a step inside the arc. Cooper ran towards the paint, catching a pass from Spearman as she passed her. Cooper tried to put the ball down and drive to the rim with Rori Harmon guarding her, but Bryanna Preston got a hand on the ball.
Preston knocked the ball out of Cooper's hands, and then the clock ran out before Tennessee got a shot off. It was Cooper's ninth turnover of the game.
The No. 22 Lady Vols (16-7, 8-3 SEC) fell 65-63 to the No. 4 Texas (24-3, 9-3) at Food City Center on Feb. 15.
"It was drew up for me to get downhill," Cooper said. "But I said that’s me, I could have made a better decision, made a better read."
Cooper fueled Tennessee's offense, shooting 12-for-19 from the field and 4-for-7 on 3-pointers. She also had a pair of assists and steals and a rebound in 32 minutes.
"Zee should have kept it and wheeled it towards the other side of the floor," Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell said of the last play. "That was sort of where space was. So, again, I don’t think the game necessarily came down to that. It’s not a single person’s fault. If anyone, that one’s on us."
Caldwell also said they needed to help Cooper with her turnovers by relieving pressure from her, which can be done in different ways.
"It’s hard right now with Mia (Pauldo) not being in, but having her on the floor with Mia some will help relieve some pressure with her," Caldwell said. "Taking her off the ball some when she plays as many minutes as she did tonight will help all of those things, just making space easier for her downhill."
Freshman point guard Mia Pauldo missed her second straight game due to an injury suffered at South Carolina on Feb. 8.
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women's athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: [email protected]; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks: subscribe.knoxnews.com/offers
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: What Talaysia Cooper, Kim Caldwell said about Lady Vols' last play vs Texas