Tennessee picked up win No. 4 on the year on Monday night, pulling away from Rice in the second half to win 91-66. Felix Okpara led the way for the Volunteers with a career-high 20 points, shooting 8-10
from the field and also grabbing eight rebounds.
Rice, led Rick Barnes’ former right-hand man at Tennessee Rob Lanier, opened just 1-9 from the floor. Okpara and JP Estrella got the scoring going for Tennessee, then Ethan Burg drilled his first three of the night to push the lead out to 13-7.
Tennessee’s assault in the paint continued with Jaylen Carey, who bounced back after a tough couple of games.
“Jaylen has really been focused the last week or so,” Barnes said after the game. “I mean, really, he knows we need him. I think he was really in tune with what we’re doing both offensively and defensively. And just really proud of him. He and Coach (Amorrow) Morgan have spent a lot of time together working on just the simple things that we need defensively and he’s out there trying to do it. And it’s all new to him.”
Carey ended the night with nine points and five rebounds, shooting 4-5 from the field.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie got in on the action with a three-pointer, then Burg nailed another. The Owls would fight back to cut Tennessee’s lead down to 13 points by halftime.
JP Estrella would go down with what appeared to be a knee injury just before the break. He would not return. Barnes didn’t have much of an update after the game, saying he would know more on Tuesday.
“They don’t know what it is,” Barnes said. “All I could tell you is it’s a left leg injury. It looked like when that play happened, the guy went between his legs and it looked like, from what I could tell, maybe he hyperextended it. They’ll do more tomorrow. But for now all I can tell you is it’s his left leg. Caution, I guess, would probably be the word for it, but we’ll see tomorrow.”
Rice fought to keep the score under a 15 point lead, but the Volunteers would eventually pull away. It was Gillespie with another three to push the lead out to 61-46 with 12:29 to play, then Nate Ament and Okpara scored six more in the paint.
Ament really got going late, salting this one away. The former five-star prospect scored another 19 points, shooting 6-13 from the field. He added ten rebounds for his first ever double-double.
Gillespie ended 3-6 from three-point range, scoring 17 points. He and Burg (3-5) were the only Tennessee players to make a three-point shot all night.
Bishop Boswell didn’t play once again as he works back from an ankle injury.
Tennessee will be back in action on Thursday night against Tennessee State.
