By Kenneth Cross
CHARLOTTE – No. 6 Tennessee used a quick 20-8 run to start the game and the Vols were never threatened as they took down the St. Peter’s Peacocks, 83-49, behind 23 points from Dalton Knecht and 15 points and six assists from Zakai Zeigler.
The Vols, whose defense has been atop kenpom.com all season, held the Peacocks to 29.1 percent from the floor.
“I feel like we had to get our toughness back,” said Zeigler. “The job is still not finished though. We’ve still got to handle Texas, but it’s a good feeling to be back out there.
The Vols struggled in the SEC Tournament with a 73-56 loss to Mississippi State as they never had any offensive rhythm not were they able to consistently defend point guard Josh Hubbard.
Getting big-man Jonas Aidoo back into a confident mindset was important as well. He was 5-of-6 from the floor with 15 points and six boards with three blocked shots.
“For me, it was stay aggressive at all times,” said Aidoo. “Coach preached to me a lot, so I was just really aggressive with that.”
Tennessee’s 16-2 run behind eight points from Tobe Awaka, pushed the lead to 46-20 at halftime. The Volunteers ballooned the lead to as many as 32 points in the second half as Coach Rick Barnes allowed his entire team play in the huge win.
“We were concerned about our league,” said Barnes. “I mean, I truly believe that we had the most competitive league in college basketball this year.”
He also discussed how the SEC could have had a five-way tie for first and the seedings went down to the last week of the season.
Latrell Reid led the Peacocks with 17 points on Thursday as Saint Peter’s won the MAAC Tournament as they tied for third in the league.
Longhorns’ Defense Leads to Round of 32 Berth
The Texas defense held Colorado State to 17-of-58 and the Rams only scored 11 points at halftime. In addition, CSU only had one field goal in the last 15:16 of the first half.
CSU took an 8-2 lead over the first five minutes but the ‘Horns went on an 18-3 run as Kaden Shedrick scored on a hook shot to push the lead to 20-11 with 4:15 left in the first half.
Tyrese Hunter had five points in that run while Dillon Mitchell netted four.
Chendell Weaver came off the bench and scored 11 points as he made 5-of-7 field goals as he was a key contributors to helping Texas build and keep a double-digit lead.
Texas held Colorado State’s leading scorer Isaiah Stevens to 0-for-8 from the floor in the first half as Stevens was 0-of-8 from the field in the first half. He finished with 10 points and 4-of-16 from the field in his 38 minutes.
“He’s really important to those guys,” said Longhorns coach Rodney Terry. “Last 10 seconds of the shot clock, we wanted someone else to make a play.”
Colorado State had a solid season in pursuing the Mountain West crown as they finished tied for sixth in the MW while posting a 25-11 record.
“We feel like we didn’t bring our best,” said CSU head coach Niko Medved. “I thought we fought like crazy defensively. We were not able to stick enough shots.’