KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team withstood a valiant comeback effort from visiting LSU for a 73-63 victory Saturday night at a sold-out Food City Center.
Freshman forward Nate Ament led the way with a game-high 22 points for Tennessee (18-7, 8-4 SEC) in a decision that made head coach Rick Barnes the ninth person ever to win 250 games at two Division I schools.
Early in the first half, the Volunteers held LSU (14-11, 2-10 SEC) without a field goal for 6:10, forcing nine consecutive misses and not allowing a point for 3:26. During that span, they went on an 8-0 run in just 1:57 to take a 10-point edge, 17-7, with 11:22 on the timer.
Tennessee extended the margin to a game-best dozen, 31-19, with 4:44 left before the break on a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Ethan Burg, who already had eight points on 3-of-3 shooting at that time after not scoring since Dec. 30. However, LSU bounced back from a 4-of-20 start from the floor to make five field goals in a row and get its deficit down to 35-29, just 39 ticks before the break.
The score held steady the rest of the session and the Volunteers took that six-point lead into the locker room, aided by a 13-of-26 (50.0 percent) clip from the field.
LSU opened the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the score, en route to pushing its hot-shooting stretch to 9-of-10. That helped the Tigers take their first lead of the night, 42-41, with 15:35 remaining. They twice extended their margin to three, as the field-goal stretch reached 11-of-14.
Tennessee, though, countered with a 15-4 surge—it ended with eight points in a row—over 3:51 to go in front by eight, 58-50, with 9:28 to go. The advantage reached nine multiple times, but LSU again chipped away, this time trimming it to four, 64-60, with 4:48 left.
The Volunteers responded by scoring nine of the final 12 points, the last five of which came on free throws by Ament in the closing 87 seconds, to earn the double-digit victory. Tennessee forced the Tigers into misses on each of their last seven attempts from the floor, as they did not make a shot in the last 4:48.
Along with his ninth 20-point showing of the year, Ament pulled down a co-game-high nine rebounds, tied for his second-most as a collegian. He went 10-of-11 at the free-throw line, marking his second time with double-figure makes.
Redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella notched 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, plus matched Ament with nine boards. Senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie added 12 points and a game-best six assists, while Burg finished with eight points to tie his second-highest total as a collegian.
Freshman guard Jalen Reece co-led LSU with a career-high 15 points, finishing 3-of-5 from 3-point range and hitting all four of his free throws. He also paced the Tigers with four assists.
Fifth-year Marquel Sutton matched him with 15 points and tied for the game lead with nine rebounds. Graduate forward Pablo Tamba had 13 points, while junior forward Michael Nwoko added 10.
Tennessee, which led for 34:22 and trailed for only 3:26, ended the night with a commanding 45-24 edge on the glass, including a 16-8 tally on the offensive end. That helped lead to a 22-4 margin in second-chance points and a 34-18 tally in paint points.
The victors held LSU to a 21-of-55 (38.2 percent) clip from the field, while shooting 25-of-54 (46.3 percent) at the other end.
Tennessee plays a second consecutive home game Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Oklahoma, live on ESPN2 from Food City Center. Vol Network coverage begins at 6:30pm on 103.1FM WIKQ
