COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Talaysia Cooper had 20 points, six rebounds and four assists, Samara Spencer scored 15 points and fifth-seeded Tennessee routed 12th-seeded South Florida 101-66 on Friday night in a women’s NCAA Tournament first-round game.
Zee Spearman added 13 points and Jewel Spear had 11 for Tennessee (23-9), which advanced to play No. 4 seed Ohio State (26-6) on Sunday. The winner will move on to the Birmingham 3 Regional.
“Our team is at our best when we are playing as a team,” Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell said. “We were able to get something from everyone. I think we had fun. It was a really good stepping stone for us. We had been a little bit off track, and so we needed to kind of get our juice back.”
The Volunteers held a 26-25 lead after the first quarter, which included four ties and six lead changes. But Tennessee outscored South Florida 29-9 in the second quarter to grab control of the game. Spearman and Cooper each had 11 points, with Spearman going 3 for 3 on 3-pointers during the period.
“We just turned our pressure up,” Spencer said of the Vols’ second quarter success. “We knew coming into the game that they really only had one solid ballhandler who was comfortable handling the ball. So we made her turn the ball over some, and then we just made other people have to dribble the ball up the court. That was to our advantage.”
The Vols eventually built their lead as high as 35 points in the fourth quarter. They shot 50% from the floor and 43% on 3s (16 of 37). Eight Tennessee players made at least one 3.
“We’ve had to guard people who have multiple people who can shoot, and sometimes we have a hard time doing that,” Spencer said. “So I know for other people who have to play us, it’s really hard. And especially, we have a lot of people who shoot very high percentages.”
Sammie Puisis had 28 points and seven rebounds for South Florida (23-11). L’or Mputu scored 12 points.
“The first quarter was probably really fun to watch on TV, and then you’ve got to hand it to Tennessee,” South Florida coach Jose Fernandez said. “They shot the ball really well. We’re down one point after a quarter and we had 10 turnovers. When we go into halftime, it’s 16. That’s really tough. You’re giving a very good offensive team extra possessions.”
This was Tennessee’s 164th all-time NCAA Tournament game. The Vols set new school records for made 3s (16) and attempted 3s (37) in an NCAA Tournament game.
Tennessee’s season total of 328 made 3s is also a new Southeastern Conference single-season record.
South Florida: This was USF’s 10th NCAA berth and the program’s fourth in the last five years. The Bulls dropped to 5-10 all-time in NCAA action. They got into the field by winning the American Athletic Conference tournament championship. They had won 12 of their last 14 games.
Tennessee: The Vols, ranked 20th in the final AP poll, had lost three of their last four games coming into the NCAA Tournament. But their size, depth, athleticism and shot making were all too much for the Bulls.
Tennessee forced 24 turnovers, while the Lady Vols committed just six turnovers themselves. Tennessee held a 36-10 edge in points off turnovers.
First-year Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell won the 2022 Division II national championship at West Virginia’s Glenville State. Caldwell spent last season as the head coach at Marshall, going 0-1 in the NCAA Tournament with a loss at Virginia Tech. This is her first NCAA win at the Division I level.
“I think it definitely means a lot for our players,” Caldwell said. “It means a lot for our program. I think the way we did it probably means more than anything. We hadn’t been playing very well and we hadn’t really been having fun. To do it kind of as a polar opposite of how we’ve been playing the last two weeks of the regular season was important.”
Tennessee, which has appeared in all 43 NCAA tournaments since the event’s inception in 1982, will be going for its 37th Sweet 16 berth and first since 2023 on Sunday.
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Tennessee guard Samara Spencer (7) passes the ball as South Florida guard Mama Dembele, right, defends during the first quarter of the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 21, 2025, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joe Maiorana)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
