No. 11 Tennessee opens season with win over Tennessee Tech, 75-43
An exhibition game in Texas. The regular-season opener at Thompson-Boling Arena. Wherever, whenever, Tyreke Key is going to score the basketball.
Key, the Indiana State transfer guard who lit up Gonzaga for 26 points 10 days ago in an exhibition win, led the Vols once again with 17 points in a 75-43 season-opening win over Tennessee Tech Monday night in Knoxville.
Tennessee (1-0) got 12 points and four assists from Zakai Zeigler and Josiah-Jordan James scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds. Santiago Vescovi scored nine points, eight rebounds and five assists. Olivier Nkamhoua had six points, two rebounds and three assists. Five-star freshman wing Julian Phillips had eight points, six rebounds and three assists.
Tennessee Tech (0-1) got a team-high 15 points from Brett Thompson.
After a cold first half, the Vols warmed up after halftime, going 8-for-15 from the 3-point line in the opening 12 minutes, extending what was an 11-point lead at the break to a 25-point lead midway through the second half. For the second straight season-opener, Tennessee attempted at least 40 3-point shots.
Cold start for Vols early in season-opening win
It was a 27-16 Tennessee at halftime after the Vols went just 9-for-29 from the field, including an ice-cold 4-for-21 from the 3-point line, in the opening 20 minutes.
The Vols led 22-8 after a Key 3-point play with 5:27 left in the half, but missed nine straight shots — all from the 3-point line, the majority being open looks — while Tech went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to six.
Key, who scored his 26 points in the 99-80 win over No. 2 Gonzaga in the exhibition game on 8-for-12 shooting off the bench, had 11 of Tennessee’s 27 points in the first half. He went 3-for-5 from the floor in the first half Monday, 2-for-4 from the 3-point line and 3-for-3 at the free-throw line.
James had five points in the first half, making his return from offseason knee surgery, and Julian Phillips had four points in the opening half of his Tennessee debut.
Tennessee Tech shot just eight times over the first six minutes of the game and finished the half with just four made field goals, going 4-for-22 from the field and 1-for-9 from the free-throw line.
Up Next
Tennessee goes to Nashville Sunday to face Colorado in a neutral-site game at Bridgestone Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern Time and the game will be televised by ESPN.
The game is the third in a three-year contract between the two programs. The Vols opened the 2020-2021 season with a 56-47 win over Colorado in Knoxville and went to Boulder last year for a 69-54 win.
Tennessee is back home to host Florida Gulf Coast on November 16 (7 p.m. Eastern Time; SEC Network+) then goes to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis on November 23, the first of three games in three days in the holiday tournament.
