Dalton Knecht feels at home on the road again, carrying No. 5 Tennessee to win at Vandy

NASHVILLE — Tennessee fans made Memorial Gymnasium feel like a home game Saturday night when the fifth-ranked Vols went to Vanderbilt. Dalton Knecht, the star transfer wing who everyone came to see, treated them to his usual road show, though. 

Knecht scored 21 of his 32 points in the second half — giving him 157 points in five true road games this season — torching another opponent in their own gym and leading Tennessee to a come-from-behind 75-62 win over the upset-minded Commodores.

Tennessee (15-4, 5-1 SEC) got 10 points, six assists and four rebounds from Zakai Zeigler to lead Knecht’s supporting cast. Jordan Gainey scored 10 off the bench, continuing his recent momentum, Santiago Vescovi had with 12 points and five rebounds and Jonas Aidoo had nine points and 10 boards.

Vanderbilt (5-14, 0-6) got 21 from Tyrin Lawrence and 12 from Ezra Manjon.

After the Vols trailed by as many as nine points in the first half, Knecht once again carried his team after halftime. His 21 points in the second half came on 8-for-11 shooting from the field. He went 3-for-5 from the 3-point line, hit two free throws and grabbed five rebounds, too.

At the under-12 timeout, Knecht had scored 12 straight points for Tennessee and 15 of the last 17 for the Vols, giving him 25 or more points in five straight games. 

It was a go-ahead 3-pointer at the 11:57 mark, after transition layups at 12:39 and 14:01, a turnaround jumper at 14:27 and a three, his first of the game, with 15:16 left.

Knecht started the season with a relatively pedestrian 24 points at Wisconsin in November, tied a record for an opposing player with 37 points against North Carolina at the Dean Smith Center later in the month, then had 28 at Mississippi State and 36 at Georgia two weeks ago.

Vols trailed by five after sloppy first half

Vanderbilt used an 11-1 run to rally from down six points in the first half and would eventually build its lead to nine, at 35-26, with 1:17 left before halftime. Back-to-back buckets from Knecht and Aidoo helped stop the bleeding though, leaving the Vols down 35-30 at halftime.

Knecht scored 11 points in the first half but needed 10 shots to get there. He made just one of four attempts at the foul line, where Tennessee went 4-for-8 as a team in the opening half. Aidoo scored six and had five boards and Gainey had five off the bench.

The Vols forced just two turnovers in the first half, after forcing 22 in 40 minutes against Alabama last week, and had five turnovers themselves. Vandy got 12 from Manjon and 10 from Lawrence to help the Commodores lead at the break.

Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee vs. South Carolina, Tuesday

Tennessee is back home to host South Carolina on Tuesday at Thompson-Boling Arena, a 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time start on SEC Network. The Gamecocks beat Missouri 72-64 at home Saturday afternoon to improve to 17-3 (5-2 SEC) under second-year South Carolina coach Lamont Paris.

The Vols are back on the road Saturday facing No. 6 Kentucky at Rupp Arena in Lexington, an 8:30 p.m. ET start on ESPN.

The rest of the February schedule includes home dates with LSU (February 7), Vanderbilt (February 17), Texas A&M (February 24) and Auburn (February 28). The Vols go to Texas A&M (February 10), Arkansas (February 14) and Missouri (February 20).

The regular-season schedule closes with three games in March: At Alabama (March 2), at South Carolina (March 6) and Kentucky (March 9).