No. 18 is surpassed by No. 2 South Carolina. Tennessee: Women’s basketball score and highlights

South Carolina and Tennessee are two of the preeminent programs in women’s college basketball.

The Lady Vols are one of the sport’s historic titans, with eight NCAA championships and some of the game’s most iconic figures. Under coach Dawn Staley, the Gamecocks are the modern-day juggernaut, with three titles in the past seven NCAA tournaments, including two of the last three.

In the latest meeting between the two sides, No. 2 South Carolina came out on top, riding a hot start to the second half and withstanding a late run to earn a 70-63 road victory against No. 18 Tennessee in a matchup of top-20 teams at the Food City Center in Knoxville, Tennessee Monday night.

The win improved the Gamecocks’ record to 20-1, kept their undefeated mark in SEC play alive and extended their regular-season conference winnning streak to an astonishing 55 games. The Lady Vols fell to 15-5 and lost for the fifth time in their past seven games.

Tennessee got off to a hot start, leading 14-5 after a Ruby Whitehorn layup with 2:48 remaining in the first quarter. From there, what had been a cold-shooting South Carolina team heated up and responded forcefully, outscoring the Lady Vols 43-16 over the ensuing 16:46 to take a commanding 18-point lead with six minutes remaining in the third quarter. That spurt was punctuated by a 13-4 run to open the second half.

Tennessee had a late 12-2 run to get within six with 14 seconds left, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to undo what had been a largely underwhelming 35 minutes that preceded it.

Freshman Joyce Edwards had a game-high 18 points for the Gamecocks, who picked up their 15th consecutive win following a Nov. 24 road loss against a UCLA team that’s now No. 1 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll. Four other South Carolina players finished in double figures, including Chloe Kitts, who had 10 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Whitehorn had a team-high 12 points for the Lady Vols, who had an uncharacteristically poor shooting night against a South Carolina team that possesses one of the sport’s most stifling defenses. Tennessee shot 30.7% as a team and made just three of its 25 3-pointers (11.5%). The Lady Vols entered the contest averaging a Division I-best 11.5 made 3s per game. Leading scorer Talaysia Cooper embodied her team’s struggles, missing 16 of her 21 shots and six of her seven 3s.

It was the first game back for first-year Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell, who had given birth to her first child, Conor, exactly one week earlier.