KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 8/9 Tennessee had seven players scoring in double figures, forced 45 turnovers and racked up 30 steals in a 148-48 exhibition game victory over Columbus State in front of a crowd of 10,159 on Wednesday night at Food City Center.
The Lady Vols broke their exhibition game scoring record by four and had nine more than last season’s 139-point regular season record vs. NC Central against NCAA Division II’s No. 24-ranked team. UT tallied 37 points in the first quarter, 28 in the second, 44 in the third and 39 in the fourth en route to the dominant victory.
Seniors Ruby Whitehorn, Jersey Wolfenbarger and Nya Robertson and freshman Mia Pauldo all scored 18 points to lead the home team. Redshirt junior Talaysia Cooper added 17, senior Janiah Barker contributed a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double and freshman Jaida Civil chipped in 10 points. Senior Zee Spearman paced the Lady Vols on the boards with 11 rebounds, while Mia Pauldo led the squad in assists with seven and Cooper recorded seven steals.
After the teams opened the contest by exchanging buckets, a Cooper three-pointer at the 7:04 mark ignited a 19-5 Big Orange run into the 4:54 media break. Mia Pauldo contributed a pair of treys, and Civil added another bucket from beyond the arc to help build a 24-5 lead at that point. A Cooper layup and a free throw from Spearman and another pair of charity tosses from Barker extended the run to 24 straight and made it 29-5 with 3:34 remaining. The Lady Vols used six free throws to help close out the first period with a 37-14 lead.
UT scored the first six points of the second frame on buckets by Whitehorn and back-to-back scores from Wolfenbarger to move ahead 43-14 with 9:22 to go. A 9-0 run late in the quarter, aided by three-pointers from Mia Pauldo and Robertson pushed the gap to 61-23. Baskets by Whitehorn and Wolfenbarger ended the first half scoring, giving them six and eight points in the period, respectively, and sending their team to the locker room with a 65-25 cushion.
Tennessee poured on steam after the intermission, getting a couple of layups from Whitehorn and pairs of free throws from Cooper and Robertson to extend the margin to 73-26, with 8:03 remaining. The Lady Vols rolled up 44 points in the frame, getting eight from Whitehorn, seven from Barker and six each from Wolfenbarger and Mia Pauldo to carry a 109-37 lead into the final quarter.
Wolfenbarger and Cooper scored UT’s first points of the fourth period, and a Jaida Civil deep ball made it 118-37 with 8:04 to go. Kaiya Wynn, who missed last season due to an Achilles injury, scored her second bucket of the game with 5:11 to go, and a Mia Pauldo free throw sent the Lady Vols into the 4:34 media timeout with a 130-46 cushion. They outscored the Cougars 18-2 the close out the contest.
NEXT UP
With the Lady Vols’ 148 points on the evening, they broke the previous school exhibition record of 144 set vs. Dynamo Kiev on Nov. 5, 2000. It also was the first time the margin of victory reached 100 points in an exhibition in Lady Vol history. It was the second-largest margin of victory ever for the Lady Vols when including a 110-point regular-season margin in a 136-26 crushing of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez on Nov. 29, 2002.
FIRST GAME STARTERS
Janiah Barker, Nya Robertson, Ruby Whitehorn, Zee Spearman and Talaysia Cooper made up the starting five against Columbus State. Unofficially, of course, it was Janiah Barker’s 38th start of career after starting three for UCLA last year, Nya Robertson’s 50th after 25 last year with SMU, Ruby Whitehorn’s 91st after 28 last year with the Big Orange, Zee Spearman’s 34th after 23 last year with the Lady Vols, and Talaysia Cooper’s 28th after 27 with UT last season.
FIRSTS ON ROCKY TOP
This marked the first time Lady Vols fans saw Janiah Barker, Nya Robertson, Jersey Wolfenbarger, Jaida Civil, Mia Pauldo, Mya Pauldo, Deniya Prawl and Lauren Hurst in action. All eight of the newcomers the Lady Vols brought in for the 2025-26 season saw time on the floor for the exhibition. The eight new faces combined for 94 points, 19 assists, 32 rebounds and 20 steals.
BIG-TIME RUN
The Lady Vols went on a 24-0 run during the first quarter vs. Columbus State. Tennessee’s longest run last year was a 21-0 blitz, which they did vs. Samford and Texas A&M.
A TEAM EFFORT OFFENSIVELY
Seven different Lady Vols scored in double figures vs. the Cougars. The last time UT had seven or more do that in an exhibition was against Carson-Newman on November 5, 2018.
FOUND SOME SHOOTERS
Tennessee lost a strong trio of three-point shooters to graduation, and the search for new bombers from long range fared well in the exhibition. Mia Pauldo went four for seven beyond the arc, while Nya Robertson was four of eight. Jaida Civil also hit multiple treys, finishing two of two on the night.
