No. 7 Tennessee fouls out in Maui Invitational semifinal loss to No. 2 Purdue, 71-67

No. 7 Tennessee fouled out of the Maui Invitational winner bracket Tuesday at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, losing 71-67 to No. 2 Purdue in the tournament’s semifinal round. 

Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka fouled out late in the close game, after Santiago Vescovi dealt with four fouls of his own, and the Vols went cold for most of the game’s 40 minutes.

Zach Edey hit the go-ahead free throw with 2:24 left, after Aidoo fouled out, and Purdue extended the lead at the foul line over the final 90 seconds.

Tennessee (4-1) got 16 points from Dalton Knecht, but he had just three in the second half. Jordan Gainey scored all of his team-high 15 points in the second half, hitting three times from the 3-point line, while Jahmai Mashack finished with nine.

Vescovi added eight in 27 minutes and Zakai Zeigler scored five. Josiah-Jordan James had three points in 34 minutes.

Purdue (5-0) got 27 points from Fletcher Loyer and 23 more from Edey, who had a game-high 10 rebounds.

The Vols will now face either No. 1 Kansas or No. 4 Marquette in the tournament’s third-place game on Wednesday, a 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN2.

Gainey tied the game with a 3-pointer 3:07, but Purdue answered with a 6-0 run to take a 70-64 lead in the final minute. Knecht hit a three with 14 seconds left, his first made shot of the second half.

Tennessee went on a 7-0 run — all seven points were free throws — to cut what was an eight-point deficit down to one with 7:34 left. The Vols went 17 minutes, 56 seconds of game time with just two shots made from the floor before Zeigler and Awaka score with just over six minutes left.

The Vols tied it at 61-all with 4:17 left, when Gainey hit his second three in less than two minutes, but Awaka fouled out 33 seconds later, giving Purdue a 62-61 lead at the foul line.

Purdue took control with a 10-2 run to start the second half, building a seven-point lead, its biggest of the game at the time, on an Edey three-point play with 17:41 left.

Vols led by one at halftime after physical first half

Tennessee led 31-30 at halftime, after a first half dominated by whistles.

Officials called 23 combined fouls between the two teams and hit Rick Barnes with a technical after he argued his team was pushed on one of the foul calls against the Vols. The two teams combined for 39 free throws, with Purdue scoring 16 of its 30 points on 26 free-throw attempts.

Tennessee led by as many as nine thanks to a 10-0 run midway through the half, with Purdue going 6:44 without making a shot from the floor. The Vols finished the half without a made field goal over the final 4:46 of the half.

Knecht scored 13 in the first half and Mashack had seven, including the four points of the game. Purdue got a combined 27 points from Loyer (17) and Edey (10) in the first half, with Edey going 6-for-12 at the foul line on his own. 

Maui Invitational Bracket 

Purdue advanced Monday with a 73-63 win over No. 11 Gonzaga will start Monday, after the Vols opened the tournament with a 73-56 win over Syracuse. No. 1 Kansas beat Chaminade on the opposite side of the bracket at No. 4 Marquette beat UCLA in Monday’s late game.

Gonzaga beat Syracuse Tuesday and will play for fifth place in the tournament.

The championship game will be played Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN. The third-place game is Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and the fifth-place game will be played at 12 a.m. ET on ESPN2. The seventh-place game will be played Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.