Late surge for Tennessee grants Vols win on senior day, 59-54

The Tennessee Volunteers (16-15, 8-10 SEC) hosted the Alabama Crimson Tide (17-13, 10-8 SEC) in Thompson-Boling Arena on their senior day in the final game of the regular season.

After a late comeback, the Vols grinded out a 59-54 win.

Tennessee got off to a slow start again on offense in this matchup. At the half, the Vols shot just 20 percent from the field and were 1-12 from beyond the arc, while the Crimson Tide shot 56 percent from the field and were 7-9 from 3-point land. Going into halftime, Tennessee was down 36-22 in its lowest scoring half of basketball this season.

Coming out of the break, the script flipped for the Volunteers.

They started the second half on a 23-10 run through the first 10 minutes. Grant Williams was the spark for the orange and white as he made a three for Tennessee to take the first lead of the game at the 7:58 mark. Williams led the team in scoring with 16 points. The Volunteers’ defense held Alabama to 25 percent shooting in the second half and just 1-8 from three-point range, which is a stark difference from their 7-9 performance from three in the first half.

The Vols outscored Alabama 37-18 in the second half and got a big contribution from senior forward Lew Evans, who had his first double-digit game this season with 13 points. “He’s relentless, he’s a young man that never gives up, he works hard inside. He has a no-quit attitude,” Alabama head coach Avery Johnson said about Evans.

Sophomore forward Admiral Schofield also contributed and had double-digit points off of the bench as he had 10 points and five rebounds. “Admiral came in off the bench and started rebounding the ball and I think that flipped it for us,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said.

The Volunteers snapped a three-game losing streak with the win over the Crimson Tide. “I think it speaks volumes. It’s a process you have to go through and this time of year it comes down to how bad you want to keep playing,” Barnes said about his team’s resiliency.

Alabama finishes the season fifth in the SEC and Tennessee finishes ninth, ahead of the preseason prediction of 13th. “At the beginning of the season we had no expectations, then we created some, and then didn’t handle it very well,” Barnes said.

Barnes and the Vols return to the court on Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. for the SEC Basketball Tournament, where they are slated to be a No. 9 seed.

Edited by Robert Hughes

Featured image by Brad Blackwelder