Tennessee throttles Saint Peter's, advances to face Texas in second round of NCAA Tournament
CHARLOTTE — Shaheen Holloway wasn’t walking through that door. Neither was Daryl Banks or Doug Edert. Not even John Calipari. What was left of No. 15 Saint Peter’s Cinderella magic was no match for No. 2 Tennessee Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Dalton Knecht scored 23 points and had a team-eight rebounds for Tennessee (25-8), Jonas Aidoo scored 14 points and added six rebounds and three blocks and Zakai Zeigler had 11 points and 10 assists as the Vols blitzed the Peacocks 83-49 at the Spectrum Center.
The Vols advance to face No. 7 Texas in the second round in the Midwest Region in an 8 p.m. Eastern Time start on CBS.
Saint Peter’s (19-14), which won the MAAC Tournament to get back to March Madness for the second time in three seasons, got 17 points from Latrell Reid, the lone player left from the Elite Eight run.
Tennessee quickly erased any thought of Saint Peter’s making another run through the bracket, the one the Peacocks made two years ago after upsetting No. 3 Kentucky, No. 7 Murray State and No. 3 Purdue to reach the fourth round of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed.
Aidoo and Knecht both scored 13 points in the first half, Tobe Awaka had eight more and four rebounds and Zeigler had five points and six assists as Tennessee built its lead to as much as 29 in the opening half.
Tennessee led by as much as 29 points in the first half
The 46-20 Tennessee lead at the break was the largest advantage of at halftime of an NCAA Tournament game in program history.
Aidoo’s 13 points, two rebounds and two blocks came in just 12 minutes, with the 6-foot-11 junior center missing time after hitting the floor hard after a foul on a dunk attempt midway through the half.
Aidoo was 5-for-6 from the field in the first half and Knecht went 5-for-8, including 2-for-4 at the 3-point line, while adding five rebounds of his own.
Awaka’s eight points and four rebounds came in just eight minutes off the bench, with Saint Peter’s having no answers for the Tennessee’s bigs around the rim. Awaka was sidelined to start the second half and listed as questionable with a right leg injury, but later returned to the game.
Up Next: No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 7 Texas, Saturday, TBD
Now Tennessee turns its attention to Texas in Saturday’s second round. It will be the third straight season the Vols have faced the Longhorns. Texas won 52-51 in the Big 12-SEC Challenge in Austin in 2022 and Tennessee won 82-71 when the Longhorns made the return trip to Knoxville last season.
Rick Barnes spent 17 years at Texas before parting ways with the school in 2015 and getting hired only days later at Tennessee. He took the Longhorns to the Final Four in 2003, to the Elite Eight in 2006 and 2008 and to Sweet Sixteens in 2002 and 2004.
Barnes on Saturday will be looking to lead the Vols to the Sweet Sixteen for the third time since 2019.
Tennessee fifth-year guard Santiago Vescovi said on Sunday night after the NCAA Tournament bracket was set that the Vols noticed Texas as a possible opponent in the second round.
“I don’t think anybody said anything about it,” Vescovi said, “but we all kind of saw it.
“As soon as they put Texas, we kind of thought that we were going to be a two seed. And as soon as I saw that bracket pop up before our name, I was like that’s definitely going to be us.”
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