Rick Barnes explains why Darlinstone Dubar didn't play in second half of Tennessee's loss at Vandy
NASHVILLE — Darlinstone Dubar finished the first half with three points on 1-for-3 shooting Saturday at Vanderbilt. He hit his one shot from the 3-point line in his seven minutes on the floor at Memorial Gymnasium.
According to Rick Barnes, he should’ve had at least a couple more shots attempted in the first half of No. 6 Tennessee’s 76-75 loss to the Commodores.
The shots he didn’t take, and what the Vols (16-2, 3-2 SEC) needed on defense in the second half, is the reason Barnes didn’t play Dubar didn’t play after halftime.
“I thought early he had a chance to shoot the ball twice,” Barnes said. “He didn’t. And we’ve worked on it enough. I mean, he’s good at that. We talk about not forcing shots, but when shots are there, they’ve got to be taken.”
Darlinstone Dubar rallied Tennessee with 12 points in 74-70 win at Texas
Dubar sparked Tennessee with 12 points in a late rally to win 74-70 at Texas last Saturday, then played 11 scoreless minutes in the 74-56 win over Georgia Wednesday in Knoxville, going 0-for-2 from the floor.
The Vols led Vanderbilt 26-21 with 8:28 left in the first half Saturday after Dubar’s 3-pointer, after leading by as many as eight points in the opening 10 minutes. But it was a 41-35 deficit at halftime, after Zakai Zeigler sat the final seven minutes of the first half after picking up two fouls.
Vanderbilt would extend the lead to 16 points midway through the second half, before Tennessee spent the final 11 minutes getting it back to a one-possession game in the closing seconds.
“Defensively, that’s really what it was,” Barnes said of Dubar not playing in the second half. “We kept thinking that, you know, we’re trying to get some defensive guys when we needed defensive stops.”
Chaz Lanier scored a team-high 17 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the 3-point line, but had what would have been a game-tying layup blocked with five seconds left, then missed what would have been a game-tying free throw with 2.8 seconds left. He also committed a season-high five turnovers.
Zeigler finished with 16 points, 10 assists, three rebounds and three assists. Igor Millicic and Felix Okpara scored 16 points each.
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Barnes used a six-man rotation in the second half. Zeigler played all 20 minutes in the second half, Okapara played 19, Lanier played 18 and Milicic and Jordan Gainey both played 17. Cade Phillips played one minute.
“When Shack (Jahmai Mashack was) in the game, I thought he got himself in some tough situations at the end of the shot clock,” Barnes said, “but that’s not always on him. We got to have cleaner possessions than that.
“Then you get down, we think we got to get some offense, so we go that way. Maybe give up a little bit on the defensive end. We’ve got to get — and I’ve told our team — we can play different lineups, but there’s certain things that can never give (up).”
Rick Barnes: ‘We can’t give in on the defensive end’
Vanderbilt’s 76 points were a season high against Tennessee’s defense, which gave up 73 at Florida 11 days ago.
Vandy outrebounded the Vols 29-25, had 12 offensive rebounds, scored 18 second-chance points and had 34 points in the paint. The Commodores shot 46.4% from the field and 50.0% from the 3-point line in the second half.
“We can’t give in on the defensive end regardless if we’re playing with, say D-Stone and Igor,” Barnes said. “Can’t give in there. Regardless, we can’t give in with rebounding, offensively or defensively. And we had too much of that tonight.”
