Davis Tallies 1,000th Career Point as No. 23 Tennessee Routs Colorado State
Rennia Davis is no stranger to putting the ball in the basket.
Tennessee’s leading scorer on the season, the junior forward entered Wednesday’s matchup with Colorado State just 14 points shy of crossing 1,000 for her career.
In front of a festive holiday crowd, she would become the 46th Lady Vol to accomplish the feat.
Davis scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Jazmine Massengill added 16 points and six rebounds and Tamari Key tallied 11 points as Tennessee (8-1) throttled Colorado State (5-6) 79-41 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Jordan Horston fell just short of a triple double for the Lady Vols, notching 10 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists in 24 minutes of action.
The win marks the eighth of the season for UT as the Lady Vols bounce back from a disappointing home loss to Texas on Dec. 8.
“Going into the game, (it was) the first game after a loss, I wanted to see how we’d bounce back,” head coach Kellie Harper said. “I’m proud of our team...I think our defense was solid enough to get us a good win.”
Harper would get her wish, and it was her leading scorer that would set the tone.
Davis came out of the gates firing early, notching five of the Lady Vols’ opening nine points as Tennessee raced to a quick 9-2 lead. The Rams would use a quick 6-0 run to pull within one, but stellar defense from UT kept them at bay for much of the opening half.
Tennessee held a narrow 15-10 lead following the first quarter before laying down a 21-point onslaught in the second. Davis accounted for eight of those points and jogged to the locker room just one point shy of her career milestone.
It wouldn’t take long once the third quarter began for her to reach it.
With 7:40 to play in the third, Massengill found Davis wide open underneath the basket and the Jacksonville, Florida native quickly took advantage.
While she wasn’t thinking about it in the moment, the opportunity to play at Tennessee and to reach a milestone that other UT greats such as Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be here...and just able to score 1,000 points with all of the great players that came here,” Davis said. “Just to be mentioned in that category is big for me.”
The Lady Vols would carry over that momentum for the remainder of regulation as their lead would grow to as much as 34 in the fourth quarter. As Davis took a breather, it was Massengill and Horston who picked up the slack.
UT’s leader in assists on the season, Massengill logged a season-high in scoring, but it was her assist to Davis in the third period that stood out to her the most.
“It’s pretty cool to give a person their 1,000th point, I was happy for her,” Massengill said. “We couldn’t really express at that time, but I feel like all of her teammates were supporting her.”
Not only did Davis record her 1,000th point, she notched her fifth double-double of the season while shooting 63 percent from the floor.
Davis wound up taking the second-most shots she’s taken to start the year, tallying 16 field goal attempts in 23 minutes. Not known as a high-volume shooter, her focus varies from game-to-game based on the team’s needs.
Whether that means getting her teammates involved, crashing the boards or making stops on defense, Davis prides herself on being far more than just a scorer and she reinforced that notion following the game.
“I can score the ball whenever...I don’t think I really need to take 20 shots every single game,” Davis said. “I just try to take what the game gives to me, I don’t focus in on getting shots throughout the game.”
Photo courtesy of Tennessee Athletics