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Olivier Nkamhoua Has Career Day in Vols Win

The Tennessee Volunteers are headed to the Sweet Sixteen, in large part because of senior forward Olivier Nkamhoua's career day against Duke.

Tennessee knocked off one of the hottest teams in college basketball on Saturday. They defeated the Duke Blue Devils in the round of 32, 65-52. The win sends Tennessee to their first sweet sixteen since 2019, and it will be the ninth appearance for the team in school history. Tennessee will await the winner of Florida Atlantic and Farleigh Dickinson to see who they will face next Thursday in Madison Square Garden.

A huge factor in today's victory was the play of senior forward Olivier Nkamhoua. He finished with 27 points (career high) and brought in 5 rebounds with a mixture of them on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor.

Nkamhoua also shot an exceptional 10-13 (76%) from the floor and 3-4 (75%) from three-point range. He had a nasty one-handed putback dunk with 1:20 left on the clock to ice the game for the Volunteers after putting them up by 11. His amazing second half propelled his play from the floor today. At one point in the half, he went on a 13-point run by himself to add something to Tennessee's offense.

He was firing on all cylinders all game at all parts of the floor. It was a nice thing to see after a quiet round of 64 game against Louisiana, where he had just 8 points. It was Nkamhoua's fifth 20-point performance this season. It will benefit the Vols moving forward if they can find ways to get this offensive production out of him and other players. 

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