Dalton Knecht leaves game vs. North Carolina after apparent ankle injury

Tennessee forward Dalton Knecht had to be helped off the court against North Carolina with an apparent ankle injury. He stepped on the foot of UNC guard Seth Trimble’s leg on a drive to the basket.

Knecht hit the floor with just under two minutes left in the game, which North Carolina led 92-86 at the time. He was in the midst of a monster showing with 37 points along with six rebounds and three assists prior to his injury.

Tennessee trailed North Carolina 61-39 at halftime, but rallied back to make things interesting down the stretch before the Tar Heels came away with the 100-91 victory as part of the ACC-SEC Challenge.

After the game, Rick Barnes said Knecht suffered a sprain after turning his ankle “pretty good” on the play.

Knecht is in his first season with the Volunteers after transferring from Northern Colorado, and he has settled in well. He entered Wednesday’s game scoring 17.5 points per game, one year after averaging 20.2 points per contest.

Dalton Knecht arrived on Rocky Top as the No. 19-ranked player to enter the transfer portal during the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings.

Tennessee went into Wednesday’s game as the top-ranked defense in the country, according to KenPom. But the Vols struggled in a big way, allowing 61 points in the first half and 100 total in the game for just the second time in Barnes’ tenure.

Earlier in the year, as Knecht was playing his first games with Tennessee, Barnes had a challenge for his transfer guard. He still wanted him to push himself, and it’s safe to say he found a new gear Wednesday night in Chapel Hill.

“I still want to see him be more aggressive,” Barnes said. “He had a couple of chances where he could have backed them down and still do some of the things we’d like him to do and he didn’t. But, he’s played a lot of minutes too, but he’ll he’ll figure it out.”

Josiah Jordan-James also had a big day for Tennessee against North Carolina with 20 points while Jonas Aidoo had 13 before fouling out. However, despite outscoring the Tar Heels 53-39 in the second half, the Volunteers’ rough first half wound up being the difference as they fell in the ACC-SEC Challenge.

Next up for Tennessee is a return home to Knoxville to take on George Mason on Dec. 5.