Lady Vols Fall In NCAA First Round To NC State

Friday, March 20

8:00 P.M. ET

University of Tennessee

16-14,8-8SEC

NC State

21-10,13-5ACC

Tennessee

NC State

March 20, 2026 | Women's Basketball

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By: Eric Trainer

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – No. 10 seed Tennessee got 24 points from redshirt junior guard Talaysia Cooper, but it was not enough to overcome 51-percent shooting and 21 points at the free-throw line by No. 7 seed NC State in a 76-61 setback in NCAA First Round action Friday night at the Crisler Center.

Cooper turned in her fourth game with 20 or more points in her last eight contests to lead the Lady Vols (16-14), whose season came to a close at the hands of the same opponent they met in the opener. Senior forward Zee Spearman contributed 10 points in her final game for the Big Orange and joined Cooper as UT's rebounding leader with six. Freshman guard Deniya Prawl was just shy of double figures in scoring with nine on 3-of-5 shooting, as UT played without senior forward Janiah Barker, its top rebounder and second-leading scorer, due to an illness.

The Wolfpack (21-10), was paced by 30 points from Zamareya Jones, while Khamil Pierre produced a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double and Qadence Samuels tossed in 12 points. NCSU cashed in on 21 of 25 attempts at the charity stripe, including 17 of 20 in the second half.

Tennessee struck first on a Cooper put-back, and an Alyssa Latham jumper off the glass evened the score at four with 8:54 remaining. NC State, though, hit its first eight shots to compile a 19-2 run and build a 19-4 lead that forced a Lady Vol timeout with 4:56 to go in the opening stanza. A Cooper trey from the top of the key stopped the spree and cut the margin to 19-7, and then a Nya Robertson deep ball trimmed the gap to seven, 19-12, by the 3:39 mark. UT kept coming, getting layups from Spearman and Jaida Civil to extend the Big Orange run to 10-0 and creep within five, at 19-14, with 2:56 left. After the Wolfpack pushed the gap back to 11, a layup from Spearman and a three from Cooper helped Tennessee pull within seven, 26-19, by the end of the frame.

NC State built its lead to 11 twice in the second stanza, 34-23 with 4:46 to go, and 36-25 with 3:24 left, but the Lady Vols continued to fight back, trimming the deficit to seven, 36-29, by the 2:11 mark on back-to-back mid-range jumpers by Cooper. The Wolfpack, however, countered with two scores to take a 40-29 advantage into the intermission despite 14 points from Cooper.

NCSU pushed its lead to 13 on a pair of Pierre free throws early in the third period. Tennessee, though, continued to claw its way back, cutting the deficit to seven on three occasions with the last coming at the 6:34 mark when Cooper scored on a driving layup to whittle the deficit to 46-39. A pair of Cooper free throws and a Robertson driving layup pulled UT within three, 46-43, with 3:54 left. A Mia Pauldo three-pointer drew her team within two, 48-46, by the 3:03 mark, and Spearman layup closed her team to within three, 51-48, with 2:06 to go. NC State ended the period, however, with six straight points at the free-throw line to carry a 57-48 edge into the final stanza.

UT got a Robertson layup to make the score 59-50 with 9:23 remaining, and a Pauldo jumper made it a 10-point game, 62-52, with 7:13 left, but NC State pushed its lead back to 14, 66-52, before a Spearman layup cut the deficit to 12, 66-54, heading into the 5:23 media break. Tennessee, though, could get no closer than 12 the rest of the way.

COOP CAN HOOP
Talaysia Cooper led the Big Orange with 24 points on the night, marking the seventh time she has had 20+ this campaign and the 19th time during her career. The guard leads UT in double-digit scoring games in 2025-26 with 25 and has totaled 53 during her time in college. She finished the season with 1,027 points exclusively as a Lady Vol, ranking 49th all-time among 51 UT players scoring 1K or more in a Big Orange uniform.