Josiah-Jordan James takes his turn as No. 5 Tennessee's star in 103-92 win at No. 10 Kentucky

LEXINGTON — Josiah-Jordan James hesitated, stepped around Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham and nailed another long 3-point shot as Dillingham did his best to recover. James turned, smiled in the defender’s face and and floated down the floor as the air quickly left Rupp Arena. 

James snapped out of his recent slump at the perfect time, starring with 26 points and time after time hitting the big shot for No. 5 Tennessee in the 103-92 win over No. 10 Kentucky in Lexington.

James, who entered Saturday night’s game with just 23 points over the first six Southeastern Conference games this season, set a new career high with his 26 points, going 4-for-9 from the 3-point line.

Zakai Zeigler, after scoring two points on 0-for-6 shooting in the 63-59 loss to South Carolina on Tuesday, had 26 of his own for Tennessee (16-5, 6-2 SEC). He added a season-high 13 assists in the double-double.

Jonas Aidoo had a double-double too, with 11 points and 11 rebounds and Santiago Vescovi had 11 more, helping pick up the slack after Dalton Knecht finished with 16 points, his lowest-scoring game since January 6.

Kentucky (15-6, 5-4) got a game-high 35 from Dillingham, who went 14-for-20 from the field. Antonio Reeves had 21 and Reed Sheppard scored 16.

It was the fourth Tennessee win at Rupp Arena under Rick Barnes — 2018, 2020 and 2021 were the previous wins in Lexington — after Tennessee had won there just four times between 1977 and 2017.

James had not scored in double figures since December 21 and entering Saturday night was 1-for-18 from the 3-point line in SEC play and had just hit two of his last 23 attempts from three. But when Kentucky cut the lead with just over five minutes left, it was James who answered late in the shot clock to get the lead back to nine.

After hitting the three over Dillingham 2:35 left, James added two free throws 22 seconds later to make it a 13-point game.

Tennessee’s lead, which was as much as 14 points in the first half, was down to one after Sheppard started the scoring in the second half with a three, but the Vols answered with a 13-2 run over a span of three minutes, 29 seconds to get the difference back to 12 with 15 minutes left.

Vols started game on 13-3 run, led wire-to-wire in win

Tennessee started on an 8-0 run and led 13-3 before John Calipari was forced to take a timeout with 16:39 left in the half. The lead was 14, at 36-22, with 8:26 left in the half, after a Knecht three-point play followed a Zeigler 3-pointer. 

Zeigler finished the first half with 13 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting from the field, going 3-for-3 from the 3-point line. James had nine points and four rebounds in 17 minutes in the first half and Knecht had eight points and three rebounds, shooting 3-for-7 in 15 minutes.

Dillingham did most of the damage for Kentucky before halftime, scoring 17 points and going 5-for-6 from the 3-point line. Kentucky was 8-for-17 from three at the break and shot 45.9% from the field. 

Tennessee, which scored 19 points in the first half last season at Rupp and trailed by 20 at the break, shot 47.4% from the field in the first half Saturday night and went 7-for-15 from the 3-point line. 

Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee vs. LSU, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network

Tennessee returns home to host LSU on Wednesday, a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start at Thompson-Boling Arena. The game will be televised by SEC Network. 

LSU (12-9, 4-4) beat Arkansas 95-74 Saturday afternoon at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, snapping a three-game losing streak, dropping games against at Alabama (109-88), at Georgia (68-66) and at home against Texas A&M (73-69). 

The Vols go back on the road Saturday starting a stretch of three of four games away from home. They go to Texas A&M on Saturday and play at Arkansas on February 14. Vanderbilt comes to Thompson-Boling Arena on February 17 and the Vols go to Missouri on February 20.