No. 12 Tennessee passes early road test at Louisville, 77-55
LOUISVILLE — Louisville suddenly had the deficit down to nine points against No. 12 Tennessee Saturday afternoon and the KFC Yum! Center roared back to life. The Cardinals had trailed by as many as 22 points in the first half, but were chipping away after halftime.
That’s when the ball found Zakai Zeigler at the top of the key. With the shot clock running out, the senior point guard let the long 3-pointer fly, hitting the shot, silencing the building and helping the Vols surge back in a 77-55 win, passing a big early-season road test.
Tennessee (2-0) was led by Zeigler and Chaz Lanier, both scoring 19 points each. Felix Okpara had 10 points and six rebounds, Jordan Gainey had seven points, four rebounds and four assists and Cade Phillips scored six. Igor Milicic scored seven points while dealing with foul trouble all afternoon.
Louisville (1-1) got 16 from Reyne Smith and 10 from Noah Waterman.
The Vols went on a 12-2 run after Louisville got the lead down to nine. Zeigler hit three 3-pointers over a span of five minutes to get the lead back to 22, matching the biggest of the game at that point.
It was a 26-point lead after Zeigler drove and scored with 6:38 left.
Vols led by as many as 22 points in the first half
Tennessee started the game on a 10-0 run while Louisville missed its first seven shots of the game. The Vols would stretch the lead to as much as 22, going ahead 38-16 on a Zeigler transition layup with 3:18 left in the half after a Louisville turnover.
In the first half Tennessee out-rebounded Louisville 24-12 and had 24 points in the paint to Louisville’s four.
Lanier scored 11 before the break, going 4-for-7 from the field. Igor Milicic and Felix Okpara both picked up two fouls in the first half and played just 15 combined minutes before halftime.
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The Vols struggled with turnovers. Zeigler had nine of Tennessee’s 11 in the first half alone. The defense covered up the mistakes, though, with Louisville scoring just five points off the 11 turnovers.
The Cardinals shot 24.2% from the field in the first half, going 8-for-33, and just 21.7% from the 3-point line, going 5-for-23. The Vols shot 59.3% (16-27) from the field and 50% (4-8) from three.
No. 12 Tennessee vs. Montana, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network+
After the first road test of the season, Tennessee returns home to host Montana on Wednesday in a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start on SEC Network+ at Food City Center. The Vols then face Austin Peay at home on Sunday afternoon, in a 3 p.m. ET start on SEC Network+.
Tennessee will go to the Bahamas for the Baha Mar Championship, where Virginia is the opening-round opponent on November 21. Either Baylor or St. John’s will be the second game in the four-team tournament bracket on November 22.
The Vols play UT Martin at home on November 27 and host Syracuse in the ACC/SEC Challenge on December 3 before going to New York to face Miami in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden on December 10.
