No. 9 Arizona holds off No. 6 Tennessee, 75-70
Life on the road isn’t easy. It wasn’t for No. 6 Tennessee Saturday night at No. 9 Arizona, falling 75-70 to the Wildcats in front of a capacity crowd at McKale Memorial Center in Tucson.
The Vols, playing their first true road game of the season, trailed by 10 points with 7:15 left, got the deficit back down to one point on two possessions, but Arizona answered with a quick 6-0 run in the final three minutes to take control late.
Tennessee (9-2) was led by a career-high 21 points and five rebounds from Zakai Zeigler off the bench. Olivier Nkamhoua scored 16 points, had five assists and four rebounds. Santiago Vescovi scored nine and Tyreke Key had eight.
Azuola Tubelis led Arizona (10-1) with 19 points, Oumar Ballo scored 18 and Pelle Larsson scored 17. Courtney Ramey added 13. Larsson had a three-point play with 2:30 left to get the Arizona lead back to four and Ballo scored on the next possession to make it six at the 1:54 mark.
Tubelis, Ballo and Larrson combined for 25 rebounds while the Wildcats won on the boards 38-30. The Vols had just two second-chance points.
The Arizona lead was up to 10, the biggest of the game, when Ramey hit a three with 7:22 left. On the previous possession, Tennessee had a shot-clock violation out of a media timeout.
But Kriisa was called for a technical foul after leaving the Arizona bench area to celebrate following the Ramey three.
The Vols started 0-for-6 from the 3-point line in the second half as Arizona continued to extend its lead, but Zeigler and Key hit back-to-back threes to make it a 10-2 run and get Tennessee back within two.
The lead was down to one on two different possession, before the Vols ran out of answers.
Tennessee was called for 23 fouls to Arizona’s 15. The Wildcats went 21-for-24 from the free-throw line, while the Vols finished just 8-for-10, with all attempts comping in the second half. The script flipped from the Vols’ 77-73 win in Knoxville a year ago, when they had just 16 fouls called to Arizona’s 28.
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Tennessee shot 44 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from the 3-point line in the first half, going into the break tied at 35-35.
Ballo had 11 points and four rebounds in the first half and Tubelis had 10 points and three boards to pace Arizona. The Vols nine from Zakai Zeigler, eight from both Uros Plavsic and Olivier Nkamhoua and five from Tyreke Key in the first half.
Plavisc, Nkamhoua, Tobe Awaka, Jonas Aidoo and Ziegler all had two fouls in the first half.
Arizona with 11-for-12 at the foul line before halftime. Tennessee didn’t attempt a single free throw.
The biggest lead in the first half for the Vols was seven, but Arizona answered with a 7-0 run to tie the game.
Up Next: No. 6 Tennessee vs. Austin Peay, Wednesday, 6 p.m. ET, SEC Network+
The Vols return home Wednesday to host Austin Peay in a 6 p.m. Eastern time start. The game is not televised, but can be streamed live online through ESPN+ or SEC Network +.
Tennessee goes back on the road to open SEC play at Ole Miss on December 28, a 5 p.m. ET start on SEC Network from The Pavilion at Ole Miss. The conference home-opener is January 3 against Mississippi State.
