What Shea Ralph said about Justine Pissott’s first game against Tennessee after transfer

For Justine Pissott, Sunday marked her first return to Knoxville since she announced her transfer from Tennessee to Vanderbilt women’s basketball.

Pissott, the first player to ever transfer from the Lady Vols to the Commodores, played two games and left Tennessee after one season.

While she was a little-used bench player there, she was in the starting lineup for Sunday’s 73-64 Vanderbilt loss, even drawing boos from the Thompson-Boling Arena crowd when she was introduced.

Pissott opened each half with a 3-pointer, ultimately scoring nine points on 3-for-9 shooting and had three rebounds. She has started 17 of 20 games for the Commodores (17-3, 4-2 SEC) as they push to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade.

“I know it wasn’t easy for her,” Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph said in the postgame news conference. “But I thought that she did some really great things today and she battled through and she fought and I also think the past is the past. . . .

“She’s here with us now. She’s playing in a gym that she used to practice in a lot and play in a lot. But this isn’t her school anymore. And I wanted her to look at it as a growing opportunity, where I’m sure she struggled at some points. But we’re really happy to have her . . . I was really really proud of her.”

At Tennessee in 2022-23, Pissott played seven minutes per game, averaging two points and one rebound and shooting 26% from beyond the arc. At Vanderbilt, she is averaging 21 minutes with seven points and two rebounds per game, shooting 36% from 3.

She had announced her transfer in May.

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Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.