Tennessee defeats Vanderbilt 69-65
· Yahoo Sports
The Tennessee Volunteers’ strong run through the month of February continued on Saturday in a place that’s typically very difficult for the Vols to play. It was again, but this time, Tennessee came out on top at Memorial Gym over the Vanderbilt Commodores 69-65.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the Vols with 17 points, two assists, and three steals. Nate Ament added 13 on a tough shooting night (3-13), but made all six three throws and had a team-high nine reb0unds.
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The first half was back and forth, with Vandy’s three point shot jockeying them back in front repeatedly. After Tennessee took their biggest lead at 15-10, back to back Chandler Bing threes gave Vandy an 18-17 lead. Tyler Tanner threw down another long three to give Vandy a 23-21 lead, the Vols would go on what felt like a Houston-in-the-Elite-Eight type of scoring slump for several minutes as the Commodores built a 34-25 lead late in the half.
But a 6-1 mini-run before the half, with former Commodore Jaylen Carey getting the final two points on a layup, brought Tennessee within four going into the locker room.
DeWayne Brown II, who was again a force on the offensive glass as he’s been all year, got the first four points of the half to draw even again, and then the back and forth began. Tennessee got their noses in front briefly, but Tanner again knocked down another ridiculously long three to give Vandy the lead again. Tanner had a team-high 16 points on 5/9 shooting from three.
Vanderbilt built another three-possession lead at 49-42 with around 12 minutes left, but Tennessee finally made a push to put the game into back-and-forth territory. Ament knocked down a three from the top of the key, and Brown put home another close one. Ethan Burg got aggressive and took it to the hole, and the game was tied again at 51.
The teams would go back and forth within a single possession game, with Vandy taking the lead 58-57 with five minutes left when Tyler Nickel strolled backwards to the three-point line wide open and knocked down a trey.
After Gillespie hit a three to tie it, Vandy’s Duke Miles hit another with two and a half to play that was originally called a two but changed to a three after review.
But Bishop Boswell followed with two huge baskets to give the Vols the lead late, with a driving layup followed by a pull up shot to give the Vols a 64-63 lead. Tanner hit two free throws with over a minute left to retake the lead.
Then, Ament had the shot of the game. Covered tightly and looking out of sorts while almost stumbling around, he turned and put up a contested midrange shot that was true. After Vandy missed, Felix Okpara missed the front end of a one and one. But Tennessee’s defense did its job with a stop, and Gillespie made two big free throws with 13 seconds left.
Tanner got off one more three-point attempt, but missed, and Amari Evans made one at the line to ice it for the Vols.
Up next for Tennessee is another road tilt at Missouri on Tuesday at 9:00 pm ET.