Dalton Knecht's 36 at Georgia added to his list of accolades, joining elite Tennessee basketball company
Dalton Knecht’s 36 points in No. 5 Tennessee 85-79 win at Georgia on Saturday afternoon continued his growing list of accolades, despite being only 16 games into his career with the Vols.
He scored the 36 points on 12-for-20 shooting from the field, going 5-for-8 from the 3-point line in 34 minutes, following the 28 points he scored at Mississippi State on Wednesday, when he finished 10-for-18 shooting and went 4-for-9 from three.
Knecht, the transfer wing from Northern Colorado, is now averaging 31.3 points per game in Tennessee’s four true road games this season, after he scored 24 at Wisconsin on November 10 and 37 at North Carolina on November 29, when he tied a scoring record for an opposing player at the Dean Smith Center.
He joined some elite Tennessee basketball company — names like Allan Houston, Bernard King, Chris Lofton, Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield — after his 36 points at Georgia.
Here’s the full list from Tennessee’s sports information department:
— The 64 points Knecht posted in the last two games is tied for the fourth-most in a two-game span by any SEC player over the last seven seasons (2018-24).
— Knecht’s 36 points marked the 43rd time in Tennessee program history a player scored at least 36 points. It was the 13th on the road and the 10th in an SEC road game.
— Knecht, who has played only four road games at Tennessee, is the fourth player in program history to score 35 or more on the road multiple times, joining Bernard King, who did so three times, Allan Houston (2) and Grant Williams (2).
— It was the sixth 36-point performance by a Tennessee player in the last 33 seasons (1991-2024), including his second. He joined Kevin Punter Jr., Ron Slay and Grant Williams (2) in the 36-point club.
— No other Power Six player this season has scored 24 or more points on the road three times. Knecht has done so in all four of Tennessee’s road games.
— Knecht is first SEC player in the last 14 seasons to score 24 or more points in four straight road games in a single season. The only player to do so in that time, Auburn’s Chris Denson, did it over the course of two seasons, from March 2013 to January 2014.
— The only other SEC player in the last 19 seasons (2005-24) to score 28 or more points in three consecutive road games is LSU Antonio Blakeney (February 2017).
— Prior to Knecht, the last Tennessee player with 25 or more points in back-to-back games was Admiral Schofield, who five years ago scored 30 against top-ranked Gonzaga in Phoenix, then 29 at Memphis in December 2018.
— The last Tennessee player, per Elias Sports Bureau, with 25 or more points in consecutive games that were both on the road against DI foes was Chris Lofton nearly 18 years ago. Lofton had 31 at Kentucky and 33 at Georgia in back-to-back games in February 2006. Jordan McRae did it back-to-back in November 2011 with one of the contests against a non-DI team.
— According to Elias Sports Bureau, the last time a Tennessee had 25 ore more points in back-to-back conference games, regardless of location, was Kevin Punter Jr. He had 26 against Vanderbilt and 36 against South Carolina in January 2016.
— Knecht is the first SEC player with back-to-back games of 28 or more points since LSU’s K.J. Williams had 35 against Vanderbilt last February, then 29 at Ole Miss. Williams is the only other SEC player in the last four seasons (2021-24) to do that and average at least 32.0 points per game in that stretch.