Tennessee cruises past Wright State, advances to Round of 32
The Volunteers survived and advanced in the NCAA Tournament with a win over the Raiders.
No. 3 seed Tennessee dominated its opening round of the NCAA Tournament with a 73-47 win over 11th-seeded Wright State Thursday afternoon. The Volunteers will play Loyola-Chicago in the Round of 32 on Saturday.
The SEC’s Co-Sixth Man of the Year Lamonte Turner, led the Vols with 19 points and a career-high nine assists. The Volunteers looked confident after a shaky start. The Vols did not score on their first five attempts of the game, but they got it going after a 3-pointer from forward Admiral Schofield.
Schofield continued his productive run, finishing the day with a double-double in a 19-point, 12 rebound performance. After sitting out nearly seven minutes of Tennessee’s SEC Tournament Championship loss to Kentucky, Schofield came out of the gate firing and did not let up. A thunderous dunk from Schofield in the second half sealed the deal for the Vols.
Sophomore forward Grant Williams nearly missed a double-double, finishing the day with 14 points and nine rebounds. The Volunteers’ big man slammed an authoritative dunk in the first half, which woke up the Tennessee fans and teammates alike. Center Kyle Alexander also made two key blocks in the game that helped the Vols pull away and keep their momentum going.
The Vols forced the Raiders to shoot just 32 percent from the field and 19 percent from beyond-the-arc in the game. Meanwhile, the orange-and-white capitalized with 45 percent shooting from the field and five 3-pointers.
Tennessee Head Coach Rick Barnes refuses to let his team overlook opponents.
“You’re saying can we out-talent clubs? No, we’ve never looked at that,” Barnes said. “One thing we’ve told our players, and we say it all the time, everybody can play. I do think hard work is a talent. I don’t think that’s a given.”
Williams later gave the key to his dominant rebounding against Wright State.
“Really, I’ve just been pursuing the ball more,” Williams said. “Normally I try and box guys out and make sure to keep them off the glass and allow other guys to get it because that’s just how I used to do it.”
Tennessee will take on No. 11 seed Loyola-Chicago on Saturday, but the start time has not yet been released.
Edited by Seth Raborn/Lexie Little
Featured image courtesy of Tennessee Athletics
