Tennessee Basketball: Admiral leads Vols to win over #1 Gonzaga

The No. 7 ranked Tennessee Volunteers knocked off the No. 1 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon, led by Admiral Schofield who picked up 30 points.

Wow, what a game between two of the top basketball teams in the country. The Tennessee Volunteers basketball team knocked off the No. 1 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs, 76-73, on Sunday afternoon in the Air Force Reserve Jerry Colangelo Classic.

Admiral Schofield of the Tennessee Volunteers had a career day, posting 30 points, including 25 points in the second half alone.

Game Recap

The Volunteers jumped out of the gate firing, taking a 19-11 lead into the first official TV timeout. After that though, Tennessee hit a cold spell, making just four jumpers in the final 10 minutes of the first half. Jordan Bowden hit a jumper at the end of the half to give the Volunteers the 34-33 lead going into halftime.

The start to the second half was less than ideal for the Tennessee Volunteers, as Gonzaga put up 8 points in less than two minutes to start the half off, while both Grant Williams and Kyle Alexander got in foul trouble. Schofield was key down the stretch for the Volunteers, hitting five of his six threes in the second half.

Gonzaga took a nine-point lead with just 6:15 left in the game, but that’s when Schofield stepped up. The Volunteers took a hit when Williams fouled out with three minutes left, as it looked exactly like what happened in the Kansas game earlier in the season. Schofield hit key shots down the stretch, scoring the last 11 Tennessee points. He hit a three with just 1:20 left in the ballgame to give the Volunteers their first lead since the start of the second half.

The Volunteers took a timeout with under 30 seconds left, drawing up the perfect play to give a red-hot Schofield a wide-open three-pointer to give the Volunteers the 76-73 lead. That score ended up staying, as the Volunteers picked up their first win against a No. 1 ranked opponent since 2010.

What this means

As I mentioned, this was the Volunteers first win against a top-ranked team since knocking off Kansas at Thompson-Boling Arena in 2010. With this win, there will be a new No. 1 ranked team in the country, most likely Kansas. The Volunteers will likely find themselves in the top five after a win against the best team in the country.

Not only was this game big for the Volunteers, but it was also huge for Schofield. He started off slow, just posting five points in the first half, but caught fire in the second half, getting the Volunteers a victory. He started off the season slowly, but after a performance like today, it should give him all of the confidence in the world after the second half he posted.

Moving forward, the Volunteers will have almost a week break for exams and then will travel to Memphis to take on a Penny Hardaway led Tigers team. After that, the Volunteers schedule will get a little easier with matchups against Samford, Wake Forest, and Tennessee Tech to end the calendar year off.