Tennessee basketball: Vols 2019-2020 top 10 individual game performances

4. Jordan Bowden at No. 13 Auburn Tigers

28 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds

Auburn wins 73-66

This is the third performance on our list in a game that ended in a loss. Two were at the Kansas Jayhawks. However, the best performance in a losing battle this year for Tennessee basketball was Jordan Bowden’s play when the Vols visited Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers. What happened in this outing wasn’t his fault.

At the time, UT was in desperate need of a couple of more quality wins to stay above water in the NCAA Tournament race, back when everybody thought the NCAA Tournament was still going to happen. Bowden, with one exception at the South Carolina Gamecocks, appeared to finally be finding his stroke leading up to this game.

In this game, he went off. Bowden scored 17 first-half points and had 24 points early into the second half, building the Vols a 17-point lead. However, when his dry spell came, he got no help from anybody else, and that’s why Auburn was able to go on an 18-0 run to take the lead and control of the game. By the time he got back on track, it was too late.

Overall, though, Bowden finished with 28 points and went nine-of-12 from the field. He went three-of-four from the three-point line and nailed all seven free throws while adding six assists and four rebounds. His only flaw was not being aggressive enough and taking more shots, as he didn’t have enough help in this game to be unselfish.