Amari Evans recorded two personal fouls by the 10:54 mark of the first half. Nate Ament added his second with 8:31 to go. Troy Henderson tallied his pair with 4:09 to go. Ja’Kobi Gillespie put forth two of his own with 2:49 to go.
Lightly put, Tennessee basketball played into foul trouble in the first half against Louisville. It did not crack, however, in an 83-62 win over the No. 11 Cardinals. Instead, the No. 20 Vols mounted a lesson to be learned, leaving behind the busted struggles in each of the prior three games.
“I thought a key part of the game was, you know, the last four minutes of the first half when we’re in foul trouble,” head coach Rick Barnes said. “Had a group of guys out there that hadn’t been in that situation ever and they were able to not surrender the lead and give us a little bit of margin there.”
Under Barnes, a second foul in the opening 20 minutes is a seat to be warmed on the bench. So that’s where the quartet of Vols ended up when their second fouls came to fruition.
Once Henderson utilized his fouls, it left a lineup of Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Ethan Burg, Amaree Abram, Jaylen Carey and Felix Okpara on the floor — a grouping that does not see much run together.
They played from the 4:09 mark until Gillespie’s second foul at the 2:49 mark, holding Louisville to a single point during the stretch.
With foul trouble evident, Barnes exchanged Gillespie for an already-used Evans, who lasted 1:36 before picking up his third foul. Still left without many options, Barnes then flipped Evans for Henderson, who went the final 1:13 to bring it to the break.
Tennessee’s makeshift lineup held strong. In the final four minutes of the half, the Vols outscored Louisville 5-3, taking a 34-27 lead to the locker rooms.
“I thought that could have been the most important part of the game,” Barnes said. “I mean, we could have cracked right there and given him momentum going into the locker room, but we found a way to get some stops, you know, there at the end and Ethan came up with a big, big layup, but I think we had two stops their last two possessions and big part of the game.”
It comes with all the more credit for missing Ament for the final eight minutes of the half. Tennessee’s freshman phenom was limited to five first-half shot attempts, unable to check back in the game down the stretch of the first 20.
Pair that with Gillespie, who drilled the opening points of the game on a 3-point make, and then went silent for the remainder of the half. Tennessee’s lead offensive contributors put forth seven points in the frame — which made a seven-point halftime lead sweeter.
“I hope it serves to be a great lesson for guys to know that we don’t have to rely on any two guys,” Barnes said. “We can rely on a bunch of guys if they’ll play the role that they need to play for us. And it’s all about getting better. It will. I mean, we’re still in December. Not getting close obviously to getting going into conference, but we still got a long ways to go.”
Tennessee’s confidence was bolstered to begin the second half, where Gillespie and Ament found their games. The two went back-and-forth, recording six makes on eight shots to push the margin to double digits.
A showing like the last 240 seconds of the first half is what it takes to win ranked games, and the Vols learned that on Tuesday.
