Vols Hammer Pioneers

Jan 4, 2014; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers guard D

Tennessee had no problem with Tusculum College Saturday afternoon, as they cruised to an easy 98-51 victory. Vol fans in attendance urged the team to get their 100th point late in the game, but Coach Martin called off the dogs and held the ball to exhaust the clock.

UT had 6 players finish in double figures, led by Jordan McRae with 19. Derek Reese finish just short of double figures with 8 points.  In a game where freshman Robert Hubbs III did not play due to a shoulder injury, senior D’Montre Edwards filled in nicely.  Edwards finished with 12 points in his first extended playing time of the season, as he logged 16 minutes in the blowout victory.

“D’Montre was fighting for minutes.  He was in position to get minutes.”  Coach Martin said of Edwards’ increased playing time.”D’Montre has kept his head in there and stayed focused.”

For Tusculum, Darius Carter scored a game high 22 points and Addison Flynn chipped in 10.

Josh Richardson did not get the start as a result of being late, so freshman Darius Thompson got the start.  Thompson controlled the ball well and finished with 9 assists and zero turnovers.

“I’m just trying to make it easier for people to score instead of getting them the ball to where they have to make a whole bunch of dribbles to score.” Thompson said of his mentality to get others involved.

UT finished with 30 assists on 35 total field goals and outrebounded Tusculum 41-28.  They poured in another 11 three pointers and shot 17-22 from the FT line, while only committing 6 turnovers.

Tennessee improves to 9-4 with this victory and will start SEC play in Baton Rouge against LSU on January 7th.  Tusculum falls to 1-12 overall and will travel to take on Brevard on January 8th.