Tennessee Basketball: Vols squeak out tough win versus Florida

Tennessee picked up a tough win last night at home against the Florida Gators. The Volunteers came out on top, 62-57.

Tennessee pulled out a tough win last night at Thompson-Boling against a tough Florida squad. This win comes at a good time for the Volunteers. They had dropped two of the last three games before picking up a win last night.

Last night’s win was big for the Volunteers. Not only did it get them back into the win column, it also helped create some space in the SEC standings. The win over Florida pushed the Volunteers SEC record to 10-5, staying put in 2nd place. The middle of the SEC is log jammed. Six teams are tied for 3rd place with an 8-7 record. LSU had a record of 7-8, and then three other teams have a record of 6-9.

Tennessee is the only team in the SEC that will be able to challenge Auburn for the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament. Auburn currently has a record of 12-3 in the conference, but as we have seen throughout the year, anything is possible. Tennessee still needs to take care of business, as there is still a possibility of the Volunteers falling out of the double-bye spot.

Game Recap

Both teams came into the game last night looking to solidify their SEC record and get a win to help their resume for the NCAA Tournament. Like the Volunteers last few games, last night’s game started out very sloppy. At the under-12 timeout, the Volunteers were up 12-5. Both teams struggled to make shots and committed turnover after turnover. The Volunteers committed 10 turnovers in the 1st half alone.

Both teams finally started to make shots towards the end of the half, as the Volunteers went into halftime with a 27-18 lead.

The 2nd half was different with both teams finally making shots. On multiple occasions in the 2nd half, Tennessee jumped out to a decent lead, only to let Florida get on a run and get right back into the game.

Florida, who is one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the SEC, struggled all night to get a three-pointer to fall. They ended up shooting 6-24 from the three-point line, with four of those coming in the last seven minutes of the game.

Tennessee was able to lean on their star players to help them pull through last night. Grant Williams, Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bowden all made clutch shots to help put the Volunteers on top. Those three players scored the last 29 points for the Volunteers in the 2nd half.

Williams showed out last night for Tennessee. He led all scorers with 23 points. This performance comes right after Rick Barnes called Williams out for “talking and not playing”. Williams made huge shots for Tennessee down the stretch to help secure the victory.

Schofield came up big for the Volunteers as well. Schofield finished with 16 points and also pulled down eight rebounds. Bowden hit a few clutch shots, as well as free throws, down the stretch finishing with nine points.

Schofield did a little taunting after the Volunteers win, their 20th of the season.

Up Next

Tennessee heads to Ole Miss this Saturday. Tipoff is at 1:00 PM Eastern. Next week, the last week of the regular season, Tennessee faces off at Mississippi State on Tuesday and then Georgia at home on Saturday.