No. 12 Tennessee women outlast Vanderbilt 83-64

Tennessee (20-5, 11-1 Southeastern Conference) hasn't failed to win at least 20 games since going 16-11 in 1975-76. This latest victory gave Tennessee a half-game lead in the SEC standings over No. 11 Texas A&M (20-5, 10-1), which hosts No. 9 Kentucky (22-3, 10-2) on Monday.

Vanderbilt has never beaten Tennessee at Knoxville in 28 attempts. Tennessee leads the all-time series with Vanderbilt 62-8.

Ariel Massengale scored 14 points, Bashaara Graves had 13 points and Jasmine Jones and Taber Spani each added 12 points for Tennessee.

Jasmine Lister matched a career high with 24 points for Vanderbilt (16-9, 6-6), while Morgan Batey and Heather Bowe each added 10 points.

Tennessee pulled away by going on a 16-4 spurt midway through the game. The Lady Vols were clinging to a 33-29 lead before scoring the last six points of the first half. They opened the second half with a 10-4 run and led by double digits the rest of the way.

Vanderbilt is playing without three players projected as starters in the preseason.

The Commodores played a second straight game without 2011-12 SEC scoring leader Christina Foggie, who injured her right knee last weekend against Kentucky. Vanderbilt guard Kady Schrann missed her third consecutive game with an ankle injury. Vanderbilt has played the entire season without center Stephanie Holzer, who dislocated a knee in a preseason exhibition.

Vanderbilt got more bad news Sunday when starting forward Tiffany Clarke got sick at halftime and didn't play in the second half after scoring seven points and pulling down five rebounds in the first 20 minutes.

That lack of depth eventually wore Vanderbilt down, though the Commodores made Tennessee work for the victory.