Tennessee's Formula To Knocking Off Alabama
Tennessee needed a big win. After two heartbreakers, the Vols were in danger of potentially not getting a double bye in Nashville at the SEC Tournament. Tonight, while playing shorthanded without both Josiah-Jordan James and Julian Phillips. The Vols had all the answers in what ended up being a 68-59 win to give Alabama their first SEC loss of the season.
No doubt about it, Tennessee won this game because they played their style of basketball. Tennessee could go deep into the shot clock on their offensive possessions, and on the defensive end, they were able to take away transition opportunities from the Tide. Alabama only got off 24 threes, so despite shooting a fairly high percentage (37.5), the Tide shot more than five threes below their season average. To add to that, Tennessee got off 23 threes. Nate Oates could not have been pleased that his team only took one more three than Tennessee.
Tennessee was also able to force turnovers and capitalize off of them. The Vols forced 19 turnovers compared to the eight that Alabama forced, and maybe even more key is that points off of turnovers were 26-2 in favor of the Vols. Finally, Tennessee won the offensive rebounding battle 13-8.
This was an extremely encouraging effort from the Vols, who could execute their style of basketball to perfection in a game it felt like they had to have. Individually, Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi were both excellent as they had to be. Zeigler finished with 15 points, eight assists, and two steals, while Vescovi had 15 points, eight rebounds, and three steals. Jamai Mashack stepped up defensively with Phillips and JJJ out, as he was the primary defender on Brandon Miller. Uros Plavsic also pitched in 10 off the bench.
Now back on track, the Vols have no time to take a break. Tennessee will head to Rupp Arena to take on Kentucky in a rematch from earlier this season. The Wildcats' win over Tennessee in Knoxville is still a "season-saving win," so to speak, over a month later. It's a great opportunity to build momentum after last night's huge win.
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