BOX SCORE: Tennessee's pace of play stymies Kentucky in Sweet 16

Tennessee has been a top-five team in college basketball all season. The Vols have a dominant defense and two bonafide backcourt starts. Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier played like stars in the 78-65 victory against Kentucky in Indianapolis. That allowed the favorite to control the pace in Indianapolis.

Mark Pope‘s team had no answers.

The Vols built a 19-point lead in the first half and never let Kentucky trim the lead to single-digits in the second half. Tennessee showed why all of the metrics had them clearly ranked above the Wildcats despite the two losses during the regular season.

Tennessee won this game by dictating the tempo. The Vols like to play slow. Kentucky likes to play fast. UT forced UK to play slow.

Tennessee scored 78 points in 58 possessions (1.34 points per possession). The Vols played at a snail’s pace and shredded what was a Kentucky defense playing good basketball entering the contest. UT shot 24-of-38 (63.2%) from two, 5-of-19 (26.3%) from three, and 15-of-20 (75%) from the free throw line. Tennessee hammered Kentucky in the paint (38 points) and shot 14-of-19 at the rim.

Offensive rebounding certainly helped.

The Vols had 14 offensive rebounds. Kentucky only had 17 defensive rebounds. Those extended possessions allowed Tennessee to keep control of the tempo and ultimately created 19 second chance points. Tennessee also had a 23-6 advantage in bench points. Jordan Gainey scored 16 points off the bench after scoring 14 combined points against Kentucky in the first two meetings. It was a balanced effort led by Zeigler (18 points, 10 assists) and Lanier (17 points). Zeigler controlled the pace and created open shots. Lanier hit some big shots in the mid-range to stymie Kentucky’s runs in the second half. Tennessee had the best players on the floor along with great performances from the supporting cast.

Tennessee scored just about at will against Kentucky. This gave the No. 3 seed almost no chance to win without a nuclear offensive performance. Kentucky did not get a nuclear offensive performance.

Kentucky scored 65 points in 62 possessions (1.05 points per possession) on 19-of-36 (52.8%) shooting from two, 6-of-15 (40%) from three, and 9-of-13 (69.2%) from the free throw line. The Cats shot the ball well but did not get enough possessions due to Tennessee controlling the pace of the game on the other end. Pope’s offense generated only five transition points and could never establish their preferred tempo.

The Cats had offensive success in this game but simply didn’t have enough chances in this game. Tennessee ran Kentucky off the three-point line, and forced Pope’s pace-and-space offense to beat them with paint twos.

Lamont Butler (18 points, four three-pointers, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) was excellent. Amari Williams chipped in 14 points on nine field goal attempts. Otega Oweh scored 13 points but needed 12 field goal attempts to get there. Koby Brea had just five points on seven shot attempts. The Cats only got six points off the bench.

At the end of the day, this game came down to tempo. The Vols controlled the terms of the game thanks to Zeigler’s ball control and outstanding offensive rebound volume. Once the Big Orange took control of the game in the first half, this one was over as Kentucky simply could not speed UT up.

BOX SCORE: Kentucky vs. Tennessee