Well, that could have gone better. But it’s a win and on to the next one, I suppose.
The Tennessee Vols continued their early season tune ups with a visit from Tennessee State on Friday night at Thompson-Boling Arena. And in a game some might thought would be a laugher, the Tigers proved to be no laughing matter, giving the Vols all they could handle in a 83-78 UT win.
Terrence Hill, Jr. led Tennessee with 19 points on 5-11 shooting (4-8 from three) with five rebounds and five assists. Jalen Haralson
added 15 off the bench, and Tyler Lundblade had 14. TSU’s Ty-Laur Johnson led all scorers with 22 points.
TSU announced their presence right off the opening tip, with Deondra Lindsey knocking down a long three from the top of the key for a quick 3-0 lead, which went to 5-0 before Tennessee finally scored. The game dragged along, as Tennessee’s offense scuffled, and a steal and lay in gave the Tigers a 11-5 lead about 8 minutes in. Tennessee would take their first lead on a Dai Dai Ames three, but TSU surged back ahead and the see saw was on for much of the first half. Tennessee took a 33-25 lead late in the half, and the lead remained around eight, but an offensive board and kick out for a long last second three gave TSU some momentum doing into the half down 42-37.
I expected Tennessee to snap out of their funk and put this game away at some point by early-to-mid-second half. And Tennessee did build up a lead of 57-43 on a dish from Troy Henderson to Lundblade for two with around 12 minutes left. That felt like where Tennessee was going to start to pull away. And Henderson put it back out to 65-50 on a long three with under eight minutes left after the lead shrunk a bit.
And TSU continued to chip away and fight for rebounds and create scoring opportunities. They whittled the lead down to 73-66 at the under four timeout. And it felt like the game was over when Ames dished to Miles Rubin for a slam with around a minute and a half left to go up nine.
But the Tigers kept fighting until the final whistle, and a goaltend with 1.5 seconds left gave the Tigers the final points and their closest margin since the start of the half.
Not a memorable night for Tennessee, particularly on the defensive end. Next up? A visit from top 5 Michigan State on Tuesday night. Gotta be better in every area next week to have a chance against Tim Izzo’s team.
