Vanderbilt basketball blown out by Tennessee in worst loss to Vols in a decade

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Vanderbilt basketball was thoroughly outplayed by Tennessee in Knoxville, taking its second embarrassing and deflating loss of the season to a rival after giving up 109 points to Kentucky earlier in February.

The game was a blowout almost from the start, as Vanderbilt (7-18, 2-10 SEC) trailed by 31 at halftime en route to the 88-53 loss. Tennessee (19-6, 9-3) made 14 threes.

It was Vanderbilt’s worst loss to Tennessee since losing by 38 in Knoxville in 2014.

Tennessee shares the ball

Unlike the previous game, Dalton Knecht didn’t take over. Instead, Tennessee got production from up and down its lineup. The Vols’ starting five of Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James, Zakai Zeigler, Jonas Aidoo and Santiago Vescovi all put up double digits.

The Vols leaned on their 3-point shooting, getting multiple triples from Zeigler, Vescovi and James.

Tennessee takes advantage of turnovers

Tennessee scarcely turned the ball over, and the few times it did, Vanderbilt couldn’t take advantage. Meanwhile, the Vols were all over the Commodores and got several open transition looks.

Tennessee scored 33 points off 19 Vanderbilt turnovers.

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Few secondary scoring options

Vanderbilt’s offense struggled immensely for the first 30 minutes of the game. Outside Ezra Manjon, Tyrin Lawrence and Ven-Allen Lubin, there were very few scoring options.

Later in the second half, Evan Taylor, Isaiah West and Jason Rivera-Torres got more involved, making some plays on offense. Vanderbilt even went on a 10-0 run at one point in the second half. But overall, far too many possessions came up empty for the Commodores.

Lawrence, Lubin and Manjon played limited minutes in the second half as the freshmen got more run on the floor together along with walk-on Graham Calton.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/vanderbilt-basketball-blown-tennessee-worst-005306259.html

Author : The Tennessean

Publish date : 2024-02-18 00:53:06

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