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Santiago Vescovi Torches Longwood From Deep, Joins VFL Great For Shooting Record

Tennessee guard Santiago Vescovi led the Vols to a 30-plus point victory over Longwood in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by making six three-pointers.
Jack Foster|
Santiago Vescovi Torches Longwood From Deep, Joins VFL Great For Shooting Record
Santiago Vescovi Torches Longwood From Deep, Joins VFL Great For Shooting Record

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.– The No. 3 seeded Tennessee Volunteers eased past Longwood with an 88-56 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

On Thursday, the Vols dominated the Lancers with their shooting, drilling a season-best 60 percent of their shots in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Tennessee's shooting percentage against the Lancers also marks the highest shooting percentage for a Vols team in an NCAA Tournament game.

Tennessee got started early thanks to ten quick points from sixth-year senior John Fulkerson, as Longwood could not handle the Kingsport native down low on defense. Fulkerson's early dominance forced the Lancers to pay attention to the paint, allowing Tennessee's guards to find open looks and blister Longwood from beyond the arc.

And the Volunteer that lanced Longwood the most was Santiago Vescovi.

The junior bucketed six of ten attempts from the field, with all of his makes coming from deep.

Vescovi's performance highlighted Tennessee's 58.33 three-point shooting percentage, an NCAA Tournament best from the Vols in program history.

With Vescovi's six triples today, he ties Chris Lofton's record of most threes made by a Vol in an NCAA Tournament game.

The Uruguayan native also joined Lofton to become the second Vol to sink 100 three-pointers in a single season, as Vescovi's six threes brought his total to 101. 

Vescovi was part of a stretch that saw Tennessee separate themselves from Longwood to end the first half, as the Vols made seven three-pointers in the last five minutes and 48 seconds going into the break. The electric stretch from beyond the arc for the orange and white was capped by Josiah-Jordan James' buzzer-beater triple from the corner to bring Tennessee's first-half total to 54, a season-high. The Vols' first-half total was two points away from Tennessee's 40-minute losing effort against Oregon State in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament, further showing how the Vols can score bunches of points in the blink of an eye. 

Next for Tennessee is a date with the No. 11 seed Michigan Wolverines, who defeated the No. 6 seed Colorado State in the first round in Indianapolis 75-63. 

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Jack Foster
JACK FOSTER

Jack is a sophomore at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville majoring in Journalism/Electronic Media. Jack grew up in Paris, Tennessee, but now spends the majority of his time in Knoxville doubling as a student and sports journalist for Volunteer Country. Jack has been a sports junkie since he was a young kid and always watched NFL football with his dad on Sundays. Jack still follows the NFL religiously, as he is an avid fantasy football player. Jack started with Volunteer Country in May of 2021 and has since helped provide full coverage of football, baseball and men's and women's basketball. Jack also works as a recurring member of WUTK's Rock Solid Sports show on Wednesdays and Fridays, and he also serves as head sports producer of The Volunteer Channel's Vol News, a student-run show at the University. When Jack is not watching or covering sports, find him on the golf course or back home spending time with his parents, younger sister and friends. Follow Jack on Twitter and Instagram by clicking "Twitter" and "Instagram" to see all of his work with Volunteer Country as well as student media.