No. 5 Tennessee's revenge tour runs Texas A&M out of Thompson-Boling Arena, 86-51
No. 5 Tennessee closed the first half on a run, started the second half on a run and, by the end of the night, had run visiting Texas A&M out of Thompson-Boling Arena in an 86-51 blitz Saturday night.
Dalton Knecht scored 24 points and seven rebounds, Jonas Aidoo had 18 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks and Zakai Zeigler flirted with a triple-double with nine points, nine rebounds, 14 assists and four steals to lead the Vols (21-6, 11-3 SEC), who avenged their 85-69 loss at Texas A&M two weeks ago while moving into a tie for first place in the SEC standings in the process.
The Aggies (15-12, 7-7), who have now lost four straight since upsetting Tennessee at Reed Arena in College Station, got 11 from Tyrece Radford, 11 from Wade Taylor IV and 10 from Jace Carter.
After closing the first half on a 7-0 run, building a 37-27 halftime lead, the Vols scored 12 of the first 17 points of the second half, including another 7-0 run to stretch the lead to 17.
It was 30 by 4:43 mark, after Knecht cut back door and Zeigler hit him in stride with a bounce pass through traffic. One possession earlier it was Knecht hitting a corner three and celebrating in front of the Tennessee bench.
Santiago Vescovi hit a corner three as time expired on the half to complete the 7-0 run, following two Knecht free throws with 40 seconds left and an Aidoo lay-in at the 1:07 mark. The 10-point lead at half was the biggest of the game at the time for the Vols, who started the night with an 11-3 run out of the gates.
Aidoo had 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks to lead Tennessee in the first half, ahead of nine points from Knecht, six from Josiah-Jordan James and five from Vescovi.
Carter had 10 points to lead Texas A&M in the first half and Taylor had nine, hitting three straight 3-pointers after the Aggies started the game 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-4 from the 3-point line.
Rick Barnes becomes 15th coach with 800 wins
Rick Barnes on Saturday night became the 15th Division I coach and just the second active head coach to win 800 career games. Barnes, in his ninth season at Tennessee, has 196 wins as head coach of the Vols.
Only Kentucky John Calipiari, with 809, is ahead of Barnes on the active wins list. Barnes is third on Tennessee’s all-time wins list, behind Ray Mears (278) and Don DeVoe (204).
Barnes won 402 games in 17 seasons at Texas, 108 games in six seasons at Providence, 74 in four seasons at Clemson and 20 in one season, his first as a head coach, at George Mason.
Up Next: No. 5 Tennessee vs. No. 14 Auburn, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2
Tennessee stays home to host No. 14 Auburn on Wednesday, a 7 p.m. Eastern Time start (TV: ESPN2) at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Bruce Pearl’s Tigers won at Georgia on Saturday, after dropping two of its previous three games, an 81-65 loss at Florida on February 10 and a 70-59 home loss to Kentucky last Saturday.
Tennessee on Saturday moved into a tie with Alabama at the top of the SEC standings with matching 11-3 records. The Vols beat Alabama 91-71 in Knoxville on January 20, the first of two head-to-head matchups this season.
The Vols close the regular-season schedule with four Quad 1 games. After hosting Auburn, they go to Alabama on Saturday night, go to South Carolina on March 6 and host Kentucky on Senior Day on March 9.
Tennessee is one game ahead of both South Carolina and Auburn in the SEC standings and two games ahead of both Florida and Kentucky.
