No. 6 Tennessee dunks on Alabama at Thompson-Boling Arena, 91-71

Nate Oats and his Alabama basketball team brought the country’s No. 1 offense to Thompson-Boling Arena Saturday afternoon. That’s where the Crimson Tide found out sixth-ranked Tennessee, known for its defense and physicality under Rick Barnes, can score it, too.

Dalton Knecht’s red-hot run continued with 25 points, Jonas Aidoo and Jordan Gainey combined for 34 more and the Vols locked up Alabama in a 91-71 win in front of another capacity crowd in Knoxville.

Knecht scored 17 of his game-high 25 in the first half for Tennessee (14-4, 4-1 SEC) while Aidoo finished with 19. Gainey busted out of his recent scoring slump with 15 points off the bench, scoring 13 in the first half.

Santiago Vescovi had 10 points, and Zakai Zeigler and Jahmai Mashack had eight each, while the two combined for 10 assists and eight rebounds.

Alabama (12-6, 4-1), ranked No. 1 in KenPom.com‘s adjusted offensive efficiency, got 22 points from Mark Sears, the SEC’s scoring leader, while committing a team-high seven turnovers. The Crimson Tide had a season-high 22 turnovers as a team while being held to a season-low 71 points.

The Vols, who entered the game ranked No. 2 in adjusted defensive efficiency, were up to No. 21 on offense before picking apart Alabama on Saturday. They averaged a ranking of No. 70 in offensive efficiency the last four seasons.

Knecht has improved those numbers singlehandedly, running his point total up to 128 over the last four games. He’s the first Tennessee player to score 25 or more four straight in at least 20 seasons.

Aidoo seemingly scored at will against the Crimson Tide, finishing 9-for-13 from the field continuing his run as the secondary scorer for the Vols after entering the game averaging 11.6 points per game.

Knecht, Gainey and Aidoo combined for 40 points in first half

Tennessee led by as much as 16 in the first half behind 17 points from Knecht and 10 from Aidoo. Knecht started the game 0-for-5 from the field, then finished 6-for-9 over the rest of the first half. Aidoo scored his 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting but picked up his second foul with 9:36 left in the half and stat the rest of the way.

Gainey was a spark in the first half with 13 points off the bench, going 4-for-7 from the field and 3-for-5 from the 3-point line in 12 minutes. He had not scored in his previous three games and only had three points over the first four SEC games, going 1-for-9 from the 3-point line during the slump. 

Sears, the SEC’s leading scorer who entered averaging 20.7 points over the first four conference games, didn’t make a shot from the field for the first 11 minutes and had just seven points at halftime. 

Tennessee forced Alabama into 13 turnovers before halftime and led by double-digits most of the first half despite the Crimson Tide shooting 54.5% from the floor and going 11-for-15 from the foul line. The Vols scored 13 points off the Alabama turnovers in the first half and had 12 second-chance points on eight offensive rebounds.

Up Next: No. 6 Tennessee at Vanderbilt, Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, SEC Network

Tennessee catches a break in the schedule with no midweek game this week. The Vols are off until a road trip to Vanderbilt on Saturday, a 6 p.m. Eastern Time start at Memorial Gymnasium on SEC Network.

Tennessee is back home to host South Carolina on Tuesday, January 30, a 6:30 p.m. ET start on SEC Network before going to Kentucky to start the February schedule on Saturday, February 3, an 8:30 p.m. ET start on SEC Network. 

The Vols host LSU on February 7, then go to Texas A&M and Arkansas for back-to-back road games on February 10 and February 14 before returning home for the second game of the annual home-and-home with Vanderbilt on February 17.