No. 4 Tennessee shuts down Georgia at Thompson-Boling Arena, 70-41

Mike White threw his hands up and called timeout. The first-year Georgia head coach had just watched his team give up an uncontested dunk to Tennessee’s Jonas Aidoo. White’s team hadn’t scored in over five minutes and found itself down 23 points. 

That’s what kind of night it was for the fourth-ranked Vols and their No. 1-ranked defense, shutting down Georgia over the final 30 minutes and running away with a 70-41 win at Thompson-Boling Arena. 

Tennessee (17-3, 7-1 SEC) got 11 points and seven assists from Zakai Zeigeler and Tobe Awaka scored a career-high 10 points.

Nine Vols in total scored five or more points. Olivier Nkamhoua had eight points and six rebounds, Santiago Vescovi had eight points and seven rebounds and Josiah-Jordan James scored six points to go with seven rebounds.

Uros Plavsic had seven points and five boards, Aidoo scored six points and had six rebounds and Julian Phillips and Tyreke Key scored five each.

Georgia (13-7, 3-4) got 11 points from Terry Roberts.

The Vols went on a 12-0 run in the second half, while Georgia went seven minutes, 45 seconds without scoring a point.

Georgia trailed 45-30 with 15:37 left, when Braelen Bridges made a layup. The Bulldogs didn’t score again until the 7:55 mark, when Terry Roberts hit from the 3-point line to end the drought.

During the scoreless drought, Tennessee forced Georgia into eight turnover. The Bulldogs went 0-for-9 from the floor, missed six times from the 3-point line and missed a foul shot, too.

The Vols held Georgia to just 19 points in the second half and only 24 points over the final 30 minutes, 50 seconds.

Vols led by as many as 15 points in the first half

Tennessee led 35-22 at halftime after holding Georgia to only two made shots from the floor over the final 10:50 of the first half.

Georgia made seven shots in the first 9:10, leading for three minutes and 37 seconds in the opening half, but then missed 10 straight shots from the floor over a stretch of seven minutes, 34 seconds.

Tennessee took control of the game with a 14-1 run late in the first half, building the lead to as much as 15 .

The Vols started 0-for-5 from the 3-point line before getting back-to-back threes from Zakai Zeigler. He finished with eight points in the first half, ahead of six from Olivier Nkamhoua and five each from Tyreke Key, Santiago Vescovi and Uros Plavsic. 

Vescovi scored five straight to make it a 33-18 Tennessee lead with 3:45 left in the half. 

Up Next: No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 10 Texas, Saturday 6 p.m. ET, ESPN

Tennessee hosts Texas on Saturday in the Big 12-SEC Challenge, a 6 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN. Thompson-Boling Arena is sold out for the game on Saturday morning and will host ESPN’s College GameDay from 11 a.m. to Noon ET Saturday morning.

The Vols lost 52-51 at Texas a year ago, as Rick Barnes made his Texas homecoming at the Erwin Center. 

Fans can begin lining up to be part of the live audience for the show at 7 a.m. ET Saturday. Tennessee students will line up at the student gate while general fans will enter at Gate D. Both gates open at 9:30 a.m. 

Tickets to the game are not required to get into the arena to be part of the show’s audience. Free parking is available in the G10 garage, but vehicles must clear the garage by 1 p.m. ET, with digital parking permits required for re-entry.