No. 17 Tennessee rallies from down 11 to beat No. 3 Houston in Players Era Festival slugfest

LAS VEGAS — Back in March, in the Elite Eight at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Houston had its way with Tennessee doing everything the Vols want to do — defense, physicality, toughness. It was all the calling cards of a Rick Barnes basketball team, just turned against the veteran head coach.

Eight months later and just over 1,800 miles away, No. 17 Tennessee wasn’t going to let it happen again, rallying from down 11 points and taking over with defense, toughness and physicality in a 76-73 win over No. 3 Houston in the Players Era Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. 

Ja’Kobi Gillespie led the Vols (7-0) with 20 points and Jaylen Carey scored 13 off the bench, to go with seven rebounds. Nate Ament battled foul trouble and missed shots, finishing with nine points, five rebounds and four assists while going 1-for-8 from the field.

Bishop Boswell starred all over the court on both ends, scoring 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting with four rebounds and three assists. JP Estrella had eight points and five boards and Felix Okpara added nine points.

Kingston Flemings led the Cougars (6-1) with 25 points while Milos Uzan added 17.

Tennessee capped the rally from down 11 points when Boswell found a wide open JP Estrella under the rim with 12:32 left, with Estrella scoring a go-ahead bucket during a 6-0 run, putting the Vols up 47-46.

When Estrella scored with 9:42 left, it was a 10-0 run for Tennessee and a 51-46 lead after Houston had gone nearly seven minutes without scoring, including five turnovers in a span of just over eight minutes. 

Houston led by as many as 11 points in the first half

Tennessee trailed 39-35 at halftime, after Houston led by as many as 11 points midway through the first half.

Ament had just five points in the first half while going 0-for-5 from the field, 0-for-3 from the 3-point line and picking up two fouls. Two fouls also slowed Estrella and Cade Phillips in the first half. 

Gillespie had seven points in the first half but shot just 2-for-7. Carey had nine,Boswell scored four and Amaree Abram had three.

Flemings had 11 in the first half and Uzan scored eight to lead Houston early on, as the Cougars shot 50.0% from the field and 41.7% from the 3-point line. Tennessee shot 41.4% from the field and went just 3-for-10 from three.

What’s next at The Player’s Era Festival

Tennessee will play a third to-be-determined opponent on Wednesday in what will be the final day of the Players Era Festival for the Vols.

The top four teams in the 18-team field will play a championship game and third-place game on Wednesday, while teams ranked 5-14 will also be matched up. The bottom four teams in the standings will be off on Wednesday and will play in a two-game session on Thursday at Mandalay Bay.

Tennessee’s 85-60 win over Rutgers on Monday all but secured the Vols a spot on Wednesday’s schedule. The six factors determine the 1-18 seeding of the teams after the first two games are overall record, head-to-head, total score differential (maximum 20 points), points scored, points allowed and Associated Press Top 25 ranking.

Wednesday’s matchups and schedule will be announced late Tuesday night.