Tennessee basketball rallied, but every basket had a response.
Vanderbilt shunned away any Vols comeback attempt in a wire-to-wire win over Tennessee in Food City Center, 86-82. Tennessee’s poor 32% first-half shooting performance dug a crater far too deep to crawl out of.
Amari Evans gave the only life the Vols (21-10, 11-7 SEC) had in the second-straight absence of Nate Ament. Evans gave a career-best 24 points on 9-for-18 shooting, including a pair of 3-point makes. J.P. Estrella and Ja’Kobi Gillespie went for 20 and 17 points, respectively.
Vanderbilt carried a double-digit lead from the opening minutes through the remainder of the way to dominate all 40 minutes. Tennessee cut the deficit to as few as four, but never caught back up because of an efficient Tyler Tanner, who scored 25 points on 7-for-9 shooting for the Commodores (24-7, 11-7).
Tennessee asleep from start
Vanderbilt took advantage of Tennessee from the opening tip.
The Commodores scored a basket on their first possession, then forced a Tennessee turnover. Vanderbilt scurried to a 6-0 run before Amari Evans drained the Vols’ third shot from the short corner.
Tennessee allowed Vanderbilt to make 5-of-6 shots out of the gate en route to an 11-2 run before the first media timeout. The Vols turned the ball over three times and carried a 2:15-minute scoring drought at the 15:22 break.
Vanderbilt tacked on four more points out of the break, allowing a 9-0 Vanderbilt run with a four-plus-minute scoring drought before Rick Barnes called a timeout with 13:33 left in the half
The Vols only had one spurt of life in the first half — coming by way of a 7-0 run that forced a Mark Byington timeout with 3:35 left in the half. Troy Henderson drilled a 3-pointer in the corner, then Evans jumped a passing lane and took it the other way for a slam, prompting the break in action.
Vanderbilt allowed just one basket the remainder of the half, keeping Tennessee on a 2:43 scoring drought heading to the locker rooms. Tennessee shot 32% from the field and turned the ball over nine times in 20 minutes.
Evans fills Ament scoring gap
Tennessee was without its star freshman for the second game in a row and needed someone to step up and fill the void left by his 17 points per game. That came by way of Evans, a freshman defender who averages 3.6 points per game.
Evans went for a career-high 24 points in 32 minutes in the starting lineup.
The Pittsburgh native was Tennessee’s only double-digit scorer in the first half, let alone the only player with multiple makes from the field. The Vols began to run the offense through him, and it led to 12 points on 5-for-11 shooting in 18 minutes.
Evans’ key moment in the second half was a self-induced 5-0 run where he drilled a pair of free throws, stole the ball in the Vanderbilt backcourt, then drilled a straightaway three to make it a five-point game with 5:27 remaining.
Vols make multiple late pushes
Tennessee failed to get the deficit into single-digit territory in the opening stages of the second half. For each bucket the Vols sank, the Commodores added one on the other end.
That was until the under-eight timeout when Tennessee rallied to a 23-14 run from the 13:43 mark until a timeout arose with 7:10 left.
A Felix Okpara dunk and then a Gillespie slam on back-to-back possessions cut the lead deficit to eight points, bringing the crowd back into the game. Bishop Boswell picked up his fourth foul on Vanderbilt’s next possession.
Tennessee manufactured a 7-0 run in 56 seconds to cut the deficit down to five points, but yet again, Vanderbilt had an answer.
The Vols cut the deficit to four points with 30 seconds remaining, but Gillespie missed an open three, and that killed any chance at a comeback. The Vols had made their last four shots before Gillespie missed.
SEC Tournament play is next on the docket. Tennessee basketball will have to see the Saturday results to figure out its seeding.
