Despite being without star Yves Pons, Tennessee defeated conference rival Georgia, 89-81 Wednesday. The Vols used hot first half three-point shooting to blow past the Bulldogs, improving to 7-4 in SEC play.
Without Pons in the lineup Tennessee went small starting four guards and John Fulkerson. Aided by a Georgia lineup with no one taller than 6-foot-8, the Vols’ small lineup thrived, particularly in the first half when Tennessee opened up a 44-26 lead.
With the court filled with guards, Tennessee continued its second half offensive strategy against Kentucky, getting the ball and immediately pushing the pace.
Led by freshmen guards Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson, Tennessee tallied 13 fast break points in the first half and 22 in the game.
“I think the faster we play and stick with it, people are going to try and slow us down, but it’s making decisions at that speed,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “We want to do that. We want to get out and go in the open court. Like I said, we’ve been talking about it for a long time and right now we’re looking to do it.”
Running the floor helped open things up for Tennessee shooters and the Vols responded with one of their best shooting halves of the season, making eight-of-15 first half three-point attempts as they opened a double digit lead over the Bulldogs.
It didn’t take Tennessee long to extend its lead even further out of the intermission. The Vols pushed their lead to 20 in the first five minutes of the second half. Under five minutes later Tennessee used a 9-0 run, including seven straight points from Jaden Springer, to push its lead to a game high 23 points.
Springer was terrific on the evening, scoring a game, and career, high 30 points on an efficient nine-of-11 shooting from the field including three-of-four shooting from beyond the arc and nine-of-12 shooting from the charity stripe.
“I’m really getting more comfortable,” Springer said of scoring 53 points the last two games. “The team as a whole is getting more comfortable. We’re playing at a faster pace getting up and down the court and I feel like it’s paying off for us.”
“He’s doing a lot of things well,” Barnes said of Springer. “Obviously, he’s been explosive there. He can score at all three levels, you can see that. He’s still learning a lot. … Defensively, he’s really good night in and night out.”
The only bad part of the freshman’s performance were his five turnovers.
Springer wasn’t the only one with turnover problems for the Vols as Tennessee committed 17 in the win. They weren’t without consequence though, as Georgia used Tennessee’s sloppy ball handling to push its way back in the game. The Bulldogs cut its deficit to within 10 points in the last four minutes but never got it closer than six as UT made its free throws down the stretch to hang on and win.
“It is frustrating,” Barnes said. “I think you have to give Georgia credit. They got up there and got their hands on it. They break it loose. Where we didn’t make an adjustment is when we went to our drive game, we said you’re not going to be able to drive and spin back, we lost the ball like that. … I think you have to give Georgia credit for that. They got aggressive and took the ball from us in those situations.”
Springer also wasn’t the only former five star to have a big night for Tennessee. Playing the four in Pons’ absence, Josiah Jordan James scored a season high 18 points, making a pair of triples and adding six rebounds and five assists.
“I think Josiah stepped up really good,” Santiago Vescovi said. “He did a really great job in terms of running the floor.”
Keon Johnson followed up his career night at Kentucky with another strong performance, scoring 11 points and dishing out three assists. His greatest achievement on the night, however, was this tomahawk slam over Toumani Camara.
“Keon’s dunk, I mean I was speechless,” James said. “I’m still speechless. Wow. I mean duh-duhduh, duh-duhduh. Sportscenter that’s all I have to say. That’ll be on Sportscenter a long time.”
Tennessee returns to action Saturday when they travel to Baton Rouge to take on LSU. Tip off from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center is set for 2 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN.
