Tennessee basketball: Three takeaways from Vols’ 73-66 OT win vs. USC
Santiago Vescovi made a three to break a 66-66 tie with less than two minutes to go in overtime and sparked a 7-0 run to close out the game as Tennessee basketball beat the USC Trojans 73-66 Thursday. UT advanced to the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship on Paradise Island in The Bahamas with the victory.
Ranked No. 22 in the AP Poll and No. 21 in the Coaches Poll, Rick Barnes’ team led by as many as eight late in the first half but allowed USC to close it out on a 5-0 run. Neither team led by more than five the whole second half, and both teams missed potential game-winners in the final minute of regulation.
In overtime, UT went up 64-62 and then 66-64, as USC tied it each time. With the win, Rocky Top improves to 4-1 and will face the Kansas Jayhawks Friday. USC falls to 4-2 and will face the Wisconsin Badgers Friday. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s Thanksgiving victory.
1. Forwards were aggressive.
With Josiah-Jordan James out for the second straight game, Uros Plavsic still recovering from injury but starting, an off-day shooting threes would seem disastrous, especially since USC went to a zone in the middle of the game and never let up. However, the versatile forwards answered the call in a big way despite USC having eight blocks.
Julian Phillips further lived up to his five-star billing, coming away with 25 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block while shooting 7-of-13 from the field. Olivier Nkamhoua was valuable too, though, scoring 12 points and grabbing six rebounds, while shooting 5-of-8 from the field. Jonas Aidoo came off the bench and had six points and nine rebounds.
2. Suffocating defense finished the job.
Trailing 62-58, Tennessee basketball didn’t allow USC to score in the final three minutes of regulation, which made up for their offense struggling. They then shut them down in the final two minutes of overtime, so when the three-ball finally fell, they could take control of the game.
USC wasn’t horrendous, as they shot 27-of-60 from the field and 5-of-15 from the three-point line. However, the Vols forced 20 turnovers, including 12 steals. In addition to Phillips’ two steals, Nkamhoua, Plavsic and Vescovi all had one. Off the bench, though, were the real stars. Jahmai Mashack led the way with three steals, and Aidoo and Zakai Zeigler each had two.
3. Little things overcame shooting
Defense and elite post play can obviously overcome outside shooting woes. Another part of that, though, is getting to the foul line and being efficient from there. That’s exactly what the Vols did. They shot 22-of-26 from the free throw line, with Phillips going 10-of-12. Zeigler clinched the game with four straight free throws.
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Along with free throws, Tennessee basketball had just 11 turnovers. Just so you know, they went an abysmal 3-of-18 from three, and doing that while James is out and Plavsic is banged up makes it extremely hard to win. They pulled it off by doing everything else right, though.