The Vols are perfect on their road trip.
Tennessee basketball survived in overtime, 86-85, taking down Georgia at Stegeman Coliseum for its second straight road victory. The Vols (14-6, 4-3 SEC) dominated the Bulldogs on the glass, outrebounding their opponent 52-27 over the course of the action. Georgia (16-5, 4-4) suffered a 26-7 margin on the offensive boards as Tennessee emerged on top in bonus basketball for the second time this season. Head coach Rick Barnes picked up his 850th career win in the process.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie paced the Vols with 21 points, tallying six assists. Nate Ament amassed 19 points and six rebounds while J.P. Estrella bodied his way to 17 points and nine boards. Bishop Boswell notched a double-double on 13 points and 10 assists.
Kanon Catchings, nephew of former Lady Vols legend Tamika Catchings, led all scorers with 22 points, also adding seven rebounds.
Dawgs from deep
Once both sides had a chance to feel each other out in the opening minutes, Georgia caught some fire from beyond the arc to create the first true margin on the scoreboard.
Catchings set the tone for his Bulldogs from downtown, connecting on four triples during the first half. Blue Cain and Justin Bailey contributed the Bulldogs’ other two makes from deep, powering their offense to a 52% shooting mark from the field in the initial stanza.
Tennessee could only muster its largest scoring run at four points, while Georgia strung together a series of four and five-point bursts to carry a 34-28 lead into halftime.
Vols dominate offensive glass
Despite their six-point deficit at the break, the Vols controlled every inch of the offensive glass in enemy territory.
A formula that usually coincides with success didn’t pan out the way Tennessee hoped it would, a 15-3 advantage on the boards translating to 14 second-chance points. While the Vols shut the home team out in that category, they couldn’t make the glass matter enough to possess a single lead over the course of the final 12 minutes of the first half.
Leading rebounders Estrella and Felix Okpara combined for seven offensive rebounds, but only racked up nine points as a duo. Tennessee continued to miss high-percentage shots close to the basket, an ugly area of its game that emerged once more this campaign. The Vols’ 2-for-11 clip from three-point land caused the deficiencies at the rim to appear all the more impactful.
Gillespie vs. everybody
Coming off a 24-point winning effort in his last game against Alabama, Gillespie kept the pedal down.
The senior point guard jolted his team to its first lead since the early moments of the opening half, draining back-to-back threes to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to three. A few possessions later, a pretty drive and finish at the rack served as a fitting way for Tennessee to jump back in the driver’s seat.
The Vols’ top scorer played his part.
Vols ice it
At the 6:51 mark of the second half, Boswell splashed home his second triple to give Tennessee its biggest lead of the evening.
The sophomore guard’s strong showing now reflected double digits in the scoring column, and his efficiency in the rebounding department had his guys in position for another possible road comeback.
The Vols finally had a cushion to show for their sizeable rebounding margin, but their six-point lead would have to find a way to survive Georgia’s final push. Tennessee held a two-point advantage with 11.1 seconds remaining, but a made layup from Marcus Millender knotted things up in the final seconds to send the game to overtime.
Bonus basketball kicked off with a pair of big buckets from Estrella, followed by a three from Ament to build a two-possession lead. The Bulldogs held firm, cutting the margin back down to three points with the final possession in hand. Millender passed up a chance to tie the game, choosing to drive for another layup as time nearly expired. Georgia couldn’t recover from the blunder.
Tennessee will play host to Auburn at Food City Center on Jan. 31.
