A hot start on Thursday night in Knoxville powered No. 20 Tennessee to their fifth win of the season. The Volunteers jumped out to a quick lead over Tennessee State thanks to a couple of early three-pointers
from Amaree Abram.
It was Abram’s first start of the season as Rick Barnes continues to shift around his lineup due to injuries. The Louisiana Tech transfer showed us something for the first time this season, shooting three of four from long range to score 15 points. All of his makes came in the first three minutes of action.
Abram built the lead but it was the Tennessee defense that really buried the Tigers. Tennessee State didn’t find double figures for an entire 15 minutes of play, struggling to get any looks.
Tennessee led 35-9 with five minutes to play in the first half. They would ultimately carry a 43-21 lead into the halftime break.
Nate Ament and DeWayne Brown took over from there and worked hard to get to the free throw line. Both freshmen connected on seven of eight attempts from the stripe to maintain Tennessee’s lead. Ament ended with another full stat line — 15 points, six rebounds and four assists. Brown would score 13 points in 16 minutes of play.
“We all have high hopes for DeWayne, because you know what? He has been the biggest surprise on our team this year, by far,” Barnes said after the game. “And we weren’t sure —we knew when we recruited him that he was going to be a really good player. We didn’t know how long it would take him, and he’s way ahead of where we thought he would be to where we’re not afraid to put him in and plug him in at any time. Does he have to get better with understanding what’s going on? Absolutely. But again, he’ll figure it out.”
Tennessee’s defensive intensity let up in the second half, but the Tigers were never close thanks to that hot start from the Volunteers. Tennessee would go on to win 89-60.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie led Tennessee with 17 points and five assists. Turnovers where still an issue though, just as they’ve been through these first five games. Gillespie had four himself and Tennessee had 17 as a team.
Tennessee now ranks 263rd nationally averaging 14 turnovers per game.
“I mean, we talk about possessions,” Barnes started on the turnover issues. “We can score 89 points and turn it over 17 times. And it’s the way we turn it over. Again, not to take anything away from Tennessee State, because I think that they’re well coached, they play their style. They can get you maybe going in a certain way, but it wasn’t that. It’s just turnovers that we absolutely shouldn’t have. And yeah, it is a concern. I mean, we’re not going win the way we want to win if we keep turning the ball over every time.”
A lot of this is simply getting comfortable playing with each other. This team features plenty of new faces and some early injuries haven’t exactly helped to build that chemistry. Tennessee will have to clean some things up quickly though with a trip to Las Vegas up next. The Volunteers will face Rutgers on Monday and No. 2 Houston on Tuesday, followed by a third matchup later in the week. Illinois, Syracuse and Louisville are also waiting on the schedule in the weeks that follow.
