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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It may have looked ugly at times, but in the end, it was sweet for Tennessee basketball.
The No. 2 seed Vols defeated No. 7 seed Texas 62-58 on Saturday night in Charlotte to advance to their second-straight Sweet 16.
Tennessee (26-8) came out on the winning side of a rock fight with Texas (21-13) that featured some signature defense from the Vols. Knecht led the way in scoring with 18 in a game where points came at a premium and the Vols did not make many shots.
“We expected it to be a really physical game,” Knecht said. “It was physical from the jump with both teams going back and forth. We were going to keep shooting it no matter what. I have confidence in all of these guys if they are open they need to shoot that thing. We know they will start to go in.”
Dylan Disu opened the scoring for the Longhorns with a triple and then Josiah-Jordan James answered for Tennessee with a tough layup. Jonas Aidoo then flushed a dunk off a nice Zakai Zeigler pass and Tennessee led 4-3.
Tobe Awaka hit two free throws and then a driving layup to give the Vols an 8-4 lead with 13 minutes to go in the first. Awaka muscled in another layup but then picked up a costly second foul. Jordan Gainey stole the ball and laid in an uncontested fast-break layup before James converted a tough reverse layup to give the Vols a 16-8 lead with 9:37 to play in the first half.
Texas then went on a 6-0 run out of a timeout and cut the Vols’ lead to two. Knecht got on the board with two free throws to end Texas’ run. Awaka hit another inside shot but then picked up his third foul of the half and had to sit down again. The Vols led 21-17 after as both teams were on three-plus minute scoring droughts. That drought ended after Gainey hit two free throws and Zeigler hit a corner trey to give the Vols a nine-point lead.
Tennessee led at the half 28-19 after a dominant defensive performance. The Vols left a lot to be desired on the offensive end as five players had four points and the leading scorer Awaka had three fouls at the break.
Santiago Vescovi got a steal and layup to give Tennessee its new largest lead of 12 to open the second half. Knecht made his best play of the day with a soaring putback dunk which he admired by hanging on the rim. Awaka continued his scoring production with another layup after he checked back in.
Brock Cunningham hit a 3-pointer for Texas to bring the Longhorns within nine at 40-31 with 11:53 to play. Tennessee’s poor 3-point shooting allowed Texas back in the game as the Vols started 1-19.
“It was a game of runs,” Knecht said. “We knew both teams would make runs. We took their punch and punched right back. We had to lock in on defense to end the game becasue that is what we are built on.”
Texas cut the lead to 45-42 after a deep 3-pointer by Max Abmas. Aidoo dunked it over two Longhorns and put Tennessee back up five. Knecht hit a huge fading corner 3-pointer to break Tennessee’s cold streak and put the Vols up eight. James hit another trey but then Tyrese Hunter answered with back-to-back layups to make it 53-48 Vols.
Hunter cut the lead to two with 1:53 to go after another transition layup by Hunter. Abmas laid it in to cut the lead to 56-55 and Texas began fouling. Aidoo hit two clutch free throws to put the Vols back up three and then Abmas missed from the corner and Knecht was fouled. He hit both free throws and then Hunter hit a pull-up trey to cut it back to 60-58. Knecht went back to the line and hit both to seal the game.
“It shows a lot that we were able to win this game,” James said. “Both of these first two games were different and I give credit to our coaches for getting us ready. We did not think we would shoot this poorly, but coach is always telling us to rely on our defense and we did to get the win today.”
The Vols will travel to Detroit for the Sweet 16 next week.
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