Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from Vols’ 89-72 win vs. No. 18 North Carolina
In an epic rebound from their 71-53 loss to the No. 5 ranked Villanova Wildcats, Tennessee basketball dominated the No. 18 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels Sunday in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off consolation game in Connecticut. The Vols, ranked No. 17 in the AP Poll, captured third place as the No. 6 ranked Purdue Boilermakers won the event by beating Nova 80-74.
With the win at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., Rick Barnes’ team improves to 3-1 and will next face the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles on Friday. UNC, meanwhile, under first-year head coach Hubert Davis, falls to 3-2 and will next face the UNC Asheville Bulldogs on Tuesday.
The last lead for UNC in this game was 14-13 early on. UT then went on a 9-2 run and never looked back, leading by as many as 20 at one point the second half. This is only the second win ever over UNC for the Vols, and the first for them since 1949. The Tar Heels have won 10 times in the series. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s dominating victory.
Point guard play was dominant.
We already knew how elite Kennedy Chandler was, but both Chandler and Zakai Zeigler off the bench dominated this game. Chandler was his usual self, scoring 14 points and coming away with eight assists. He also had a steal, a block, five rebounds and only two turnovers.
Off the bench, though, Zeigler was elite too, as he scored 18 points, came away with five assists and had two steals. Add in two rebounds and no turnovers, and he was as elite as Chandler. What helped both of these players is the return of something that was missing against Villanova, and that leads to our next takeaway.
Three-point shooting returned.
All year, Tennessee basketball has relied more heavily on the three-point shot. However, it wasn’t falling the way it usually does against Villanova, as they went 5-of-28 on that game. Well, efficient three-point shooting came back in this one.
UT went 9-of-20 from beyond the arc. Chandler went 2-of-3, and Zeigler went 3-of-5 off the bench. Santiago Vescovi, who was even elite in the Vols’ loss, went 3-of-6 from three. Olivier Nkamhoua hit one too. This elite shooting was just enough to stretch the floor, and it led to the biggest reason the Vols dominated.
Rocky Top was unstoppable in the paint.
Elite point guard play and solid three-point shooting was going to naturally lead to the most important factor in this game. The Vols dominated down low. They outscored UNC in the paint 54-22, and John Fulkerson returned to form with 13 points, six assists and five rebounds.
Brandon Huntley-Hatfield helped with six points in the paint, and Nkamhoua added four, but the big help to Fulkerson was the guards. Chandler and Zeigler were unstoppable when driving to the basket, and the threat of an outside shooter allowed that to happen. This is why Tennessee basketball dominated Sunday.