Tennessee Basketball: Grant Williams leads Vols in career night vs Vandy

The Tennessee Volunteers pulled out a win in OT against the Vanderbilt Commodores last night, thanks to career-high 43 points from Grant Williams.

The Tennessee Volunteers survived a scare last night in Memorial Gym, pulling away from the Vanderbilt Commodores in the OT period as they won 88-83.

Memories of the 2008 Memorial Magic game where Vanderbilt upset the No. 1 ranked Volunteers kept flashing in my head last night throughout the game, as the Commodores continued to knock down shot after shot. Grant Williams wasn’t going to let history repeat itself, pulling off the game of his career.

The Commodores, in the last two years, have yet to find a way to stop Williams. Last year in Memorial Gym, Williams posted his then-career high of 37 points, but last night he posted a new career high. Williams was unstoppable as he scored 43 points on 10-15 shooting from the field.

In likely the most unbelievable stat of the night, he shot a perfect 23-23 from the free throw line, which is unheard of from a big man. He also managed to pull down eight rebounds, block four shots, and assist on two baskets.

Game Recap

This was a game that the Volunteers should’ve run away with, but instead, it was kept close for the second game in a row. Tennessee has jumped out to an early double-digit lead in both the Alabama and Vanderbilt game, but watched that lead slip away and go down to the wire.

Tennessee was able to jump out to an early 15-2 lead, forcing Bryce Drew to take an early timeout. Vanderbilt jumped right back into the game though, taking their first lead of the game with two minutes left in the first half. The Volunteers hit two three-pointers just before the end of halftime to take a 38-37 lead into halftime.

The second half belonged all to Williams. At different points throughout the second half and OT, Williams had stretches where he scored six straight, seven straight, and 10 straight twice. On a night where Admiral Schofield couldn’t hit, Williams stepped up.

Vanderbilt was on fire throughout the second half, hitting 14 of the 24 shots they attempted, which included six three-pointers.

The end of the game was very controversial, as the referees went to the monitor three times in the last five minutes of the second half and the OT period.

This play impacted the game in a huge way, giving Williams two free throws and the ball back, where Williams added two more points to cut the Commodores lead to two. From this angle, it doesn’t look like much of a foul, but from the camera angle they continued on TV, it did look like he hooked Williams and extended his arm.

I will go ahead and say that the officiating wasn’t very good at all last night for either team.

Teams have yet to figure out how to guard Williams without fouling and last night is a prime example of that. In the last few minutes of the second half and OT, Williams had three and-ones.

Williams enters his name into record books

Williams led the Volunteers on to victory last night. On his way there, he entered his name into record books. He is now tied for 5th in Tennessee basketball history with 43 points in a game. Williams is now tied with all-time Vol greats such as Allan Houston, Ernie Grunfeld, Bernard King and Reggie Johnson who have scored 43 points. Tony White still holds the Vol record for most points in a game with 51 when he set that mark in 1987 against Auburn.

Williams was also one free throw make away from tying the record for most free throws made in a game without a miss. Williams went a perfect 23-23 from the charity stripe. The record was set in 1958 by Arlen Clark of Oklahoma State in 1959 when he went 24-24 from the line.