Tennessee's season ends in Sweet 16 loss to Florida Atlantic, 62-55
NEW YORK — The Elite Eight evaded Tennessee for the eighth time Thursday night. This time it was ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic that sent the fourth-seeded Vols home in the Sweet 16, winning 62-55 in the East Region semifinal game at Madison Square Garden.
FAU took control with a 16-2 run over a span of four minutes, 46 seconds in the second half, turning a six-point deficit into a 49-41 lead after a flurry of 3-pointers, eventually forcing a Tennessee timeout with 7:22 left.
Josiah-Jordan James hit a three with 3:37 left, getting the FAU lead down to five, at 55-50, after it had been stretched to 10. Nick Boyd answered with a layup and Johnell Davis hit two free throws to give the Owls enough breathing room in the closing minutes.
Tennessee (25-11) got 10 points and seven rebounds from Jonas Aidoo, James scored 10 and Santiago Vescovi had nine. Uros Plavsic scored all of his eight points in the first half and Olivier Nkamhoua, after scoring 27 points in the win over Duke on Saturday, finished with six points on 2-for-8 shooting.
The Vols have advanced to just one Elite Eight in program history, in 2010, in nine trips to the Sweet 16.
Florida Atlantic (34-3) 15 points from Davis, 12 from Boyd and 11 from Michael Forrest. Tennessee committed just six turnovers, but FAU outrebounded the Vols 40-36 and scored 14 second-chance points in the win.
It was a 41-39 FAU lead on the next trip down, when Forrest hit another three with 9:52 left. He scored again 21 seconds later, driving, falling on the baseline and banking in a runner to make it an 8-0 run all on his own.
Jonas Aidoo hit a long jumper to end the scoreless drought, but the FAU run continued. The Owls had scored 15 of the last 17 when Alijah Martin made an open three at the top of the key with 7:22 left. Davis added two free throws.
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Vescovi opened the seance half with a pair of contested threes after he made just one shot in the first half. Vescovi was called for his second foul with 13:12 left, after Jonas Aidoo scored to make the lead five.
Tyreke Key picked up his second foul with 11:29 left in the second half and Jahmai Mashack had his second at the 12:17 mark in the first half. Uros Plavsic had two of his own after a charge early in the second half.
Aidoo picked up three fouls in just one minute, 22 seconds, picking up his fourth with 8:46 left.
Vols led 27-22 at halftime, after up and down first half
Tennessee took a 27-22 lead into halftime after Plavsic’s tip-in at the horn was ruled late. It was initially called good on the floor before being overturned after replay review.
The Vols led by as many as nine points in the first half — on a Jahmai Mashack midrange jumper with 4:03 left in the half — but Florida Atlantic stuck around as Tennessee missed its final five shots of the half and failed to score over the final 3:17.
Plavsic scored eight points in the first half on 4-for-8 shooting from the floor and James had seven points, all scored in the first eight minutes of the game. Nkamhoua was scoreless at half, after only taking two shots from the floor, and Vescovi had three points on 1-for-5 shooting.
FAU went just 3-for-14 from the 3-point line in the first half, missing multiple open looks, but won the rebounding battle 22-17 despite Tennessee’s size advantage.
