Tennessee basketball: Vols win 18th game in a row by sweeping the Gators

Tennessee basketball won their 18th game in a row beating the Florida Gators on Saturday afternoon. Here are three takeaways from the game.

A sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena showed up, showed out, and looked amazing doing so.

The No.1 Tennessee basketball team won their 22nd game of the season and 18th in a row with their 73-61 victory over Florida. And, while the Vols didn’t play their best, they swept the Gators for the first time since the 2008-09 season and have beat them the past three matchups.

Tennessee began the game 0-for-5 from the floor and was struggling offensively until Admiral Schofield knocked down a three-point jumper to tie the game. The Gators couldn’t take advantage of the slow start only up 8-5 when the Vols went on a 9-0.

Florida’s defense has been solid all season, but it was Tennessee who was putting the clamps on. There was a stretch in the first half were the Gators made just 1-for-10 with five turnovers in eight minutes.

The Vols took a six-point lead into halftime but pulled away in the second half like most games this season. Here are three takeaways from the game.

1. Schofield was FLEXIN’ them

Tennessee needed something to get going. Florida’s defense was causing a lot of problems, and it was something to resemble the game in Gainesville.

So, who did the Vols turn to?

Grant Williams and Admiral Flexin’ Schofield.

Schofield took the lid off a sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena several times with ferocious dunks. The senior leader finished the game with 14 points on 6-for-11 from the floor, including 1-for-2 from the three-point line.

2. Suffocating defense

Tennessee’s defense showed out against a struggling Gators squad. Florida came into the game shooting around 45 percent from the floor in conference play.

The Vols held them to 21-for-59, just 35.6 percent. Tennessee limited Florida to 30 percent from deep, which was much improved from the 37.5 percent last game in Gainesville.

3. Another sloppy double-digit win

Tennessee didn’t look great at times. But, like almost every other game this season, the opposing team took their best shot and it wasn’t good enough.

Florida was within six points at half time but never could get anything going to cut the lead any closer.

Lamonte Turner came alive with about 15 minutes left hitting back-to-back three-point jumpers to extend Tennessee’s lead to 12. And, before you knew it Tennessee was up by 19 points and the game was over.

The double-digit victory gave the Vols’ their fifth in a row and eighth in SEC play.

The Vols are in action next on Wednesday night when the South Carolina Gamecocks come to town. The game will be televised on SECN at 6:30 pm E.T.