Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from Vols’ 65-56 win vs. Cincinnati

Here’s what we learned from the Tennessee basketball Volunteers’ win over the Bearcats.

Tough defense and free throw shooting allowed for Tennessee basketball to outscore the Cincinnati Bearcats 14-3 with six minutes to go in the game. In the process, the Vols pulled off a 65-56 ugly win to move to 2-0 on the year while Cincy fell to 2-2 under John Brennan.

UT trailed Cincinnati early in the game but had a late first-half run to take a 30-24 lead. However, the game went back and forth until the end. That six-point lead was the largest for either team until the Vols pulled away in the final 30 seconds.

This is Tennessee basketball’s second straight nine-point victory after beating the Colorado Buffaloes 56-47 in their opener earlier this week. Up next for Rick Barnes’ team is a home game against the Appalachian State Mountaineers on Tuesday, Dec. 15. Here are three takeaways from their Saturday win.

1. Defense and rebounding lead the way again.

For the second straight game, the Vols won by doing all the things that don’t involve scoring well. They held Cincinnati to 38 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from the free throw line. John Fulkerson had 12 rebounds, helping UT outrebound the Bearcats 45-34, including 14 offensive rebounds. Yves Pons, meanwhile, had two blocks as the team had four on the day.

Then there were the turnovers. Cincinnati had 17 on the day, and Josiah-Jordan James was a huge part of that with three steals. This all proved huge in the clutch. Up by three with 90 seconds to go, the Vols stopped the Bearcats on their final four possessions.

2. Shooting in the half-court offense is still an issue.

Once again, Tennessee basketball struggled to score efficiently out of the half court. The Vols shot a horrendous 32.2 percent from the field. This time, though, it was even worse, as they shot 2-of-12 from the three-point line.

Fulkerson and Jaden Springer were the only two players to score double-figures, but neither shot well. Yves Pons improved his efficiency, but E.J. Anosike is still struggling. How, then, were they able to break the 60-point threshold?

3. Offensive mistakes were at a minimum

With an off-day shooting, similar to the defense and rebounding, the Vols did everything else right when they had the ball in their hands. They only had 11 turnovers, which is really good considering they have four newcomers seeing a significant amount of action.

Meanwhile, free throw shooting was superb. The Vols shot 25-of-30 from the line. Springer had 11 points because he was 5-of-6, and Fulkerson had 15 points because he was 7-of-8. That’s the good news with this team. Tennessee basketball can clearly win when it’s not scoring well out of its half-court sets.