No. 20 Tennessee snaps losing streak in romp over No. 11 Louisville, 83-62

Tennessee Basketball had lost three games and hadn’t been home in three miserable weeks. What awaited back in Knoxville was No. 11 Louisville Tuesday night inside a sold-out Food City Center. 

It was three 3-pointers in a span of 53 seconds that put the exclamation mark on just the kind of bounce back the Vols needed, going nearly wire-to-wire in an 83-62 win over Pat Kelsey’s red-hot Cardinals. 

Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half and had five assists and three rebounds to lead Tennessee (8-3). Nate Ament had 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists and Jaylen Carey scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half and added 10 rebounds for the double-double.

Louisville (9-2) got 22 points from Ryan Conwell and 19 more from Adrian Wooley.

Gillespie started the game-deciding 3-point spurt at the 15:40 mark in the second half, putting the Vols up 11 and giving him 10 points in the first five minutes after halftime. Ament followed with a three 29 seconds later, then Ethan Burg hit one with 14:47 left, extending the lead to 15 and forcing a Louisville timeout.

Louisville, ranked No. 2 in KenPom offensive efficiency coming off a 99-73 win over Memphis on Saturday, finished just 7-for-32 from the 3-point line Tuesday night and turned the basketball over 14 times, leading to 17 Tennessee points.

Tennessee built a 10-point lead in tone-setting first half

Tennessee led for over 17 minutes and by as many as 10 points in the first half, despite shooting 1-for-8 from the 3-point line, going 3-for-9 at the foul line and battling foul trouble.

Nate Ament, Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Troy Henderson all had two fouls each in the first half and Amari Evans had three. Still, Jaylen Carey (10) and JP Estrella (6) combined for 16 points and Carey added six rebounds, pacing the Vols as they shot 51.9% from the floor.

Ryan Conwell led Louisville with 11 points in the first half, going 3-for-7 from the 3-point line. The Cardinals were without five-star freshmen point guard Mikel Brown Jr. (back), who averages 16.6 points and 5.1 assists per game.

The Vols forced nine turnovers in the first half and held Louisville to 360% shooting from the field and just 25.0% from the 3-point line.

Up Next: Tennessee vs. Gardner Webb

Tennessee is back home against Gardner Webb (1-12) on Sunday afternoon (3 Eastern Time, SEC Network+) in the first of two straight buy games to finish the non-conference schedule.

The Vols host South Carolina State on December 30 (8 p.m. ET, SEC Network) before starting SEC play at Arkansas on January 6. The SEC home opener is against Texas on January 6.

Tennessee played five straight home games to start the season, then went nearly three weeks without a home game, between the November 20 win over Tennessee State and Tuesday night’s game against Louisville.