No. 9 Tennessee passes another Big Ten road test, takes down Wisconsin, 80-70
MADISON, Wis. — No. 9 Tennessee passed another Big Ten road test Friday night. This time it counted for the Vols, who went to the Kohl Center and took down Wisconsin 80-70 little less than two weeks removed from the exhibition win at No. 4 Michigan State.
Tennessee (2-0) got 24 points from Dalton Knecht, who continues to star for the Vols. Jordan Gainey again provided instant offense off the bench with 10 points. Josiah-Jordan James had 14 and Jonas Aidoo scored another 10. Tobe Awaka scored six important points in the second half.
Zakai Zeigler had five points in 18 minutes and Santiago Vescovi scored five after dealing with early foul trouble.
Wisconsin (1-1) got a team-high 17 points from AJ Storr. Steven Crowl scored 14, Chucky Hepburn had 13 and Tyler Wahl added 10.
Tennessee struggled for stretches early in the second half, but got all the separation it needed with a 9-2 run to quiet the Badgers for good.
The lead was down to three for the Vols when Knecht drove baseline, hung in the air and finished at the rim while getting foul.
The 3-point play was followed by back-to-back paint buckets from Awaka before an Aidoo layup made it a 10-point game with 4:45 left, silencing the home crowd and giving Tennessee its biggest lead of the game.
Knecht scored 14 in first half to lead Vols to 43-35 lead at halftime
Tennessee’s 43-35 lead at halftime was its largest of the first half. The Vols never trailed in the opening half, leading for 16 minutes, 46 seconds and the game was tied for another 3:14.
When Wisconsin did tie it, on a Hepburn 3-pointer with 4:19 left before halftime, Tennessee answered with six straight.
The Vols shot 55.6% from the floor (15-27) and 55.6% from the 3-point line (5-9) in the first half. Knecht had 14 before the break, Gainey scored eight and James had five.
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Tennessee was plagued early on by foul trouble, with Tobe Awaka, Vescovi, Mashack and Aidoo all picking up two fouls in the first half.
Storr and Hepburn kept the Badgers hanging around in front of the home crowd, with Storr scoring 12 points and Hepburn adding nine in the first half. The two combined to go 8-for-16 from the floor, including 2-for-4 from the 3-point line.
Up Next: No. 9 Tennessee vs. Wofford
After the first road game of the season, Tennessee returns home to host Wofford on Tuesday. The game is scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time start and can be seen on SEC Network+.
Tuesday’s game is the final tuneup before the Vols go to Honolulu for the Maui Invitational, where they’ll start play in the first round against Syracuse on Monday, November 20. The game will start at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time and will be televised by ESPN2.
Either No. 3 Purdue or No. 11 Gonzaga will be the opponent the following day. The other half of the eight-team bracket includes No. 1 Kansas playing Chaminade and No. 5 Marquette facing UCLA.
Another road test awaits Tennessee after the Hawaii trip, with a game at North Carolina on November 29 in the first edition of the ACC-SEC Challenge. It’s a 7:15 p.m. ET start on ESPN at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
