Continuing the trend from their first two games, the Tennessee basketball team played yet another close game on Thursday night, this time to the Marshall Thundering Herd. The Vols trailed 38-35 at the half and started out ice cold in the 2nd half, trailing by as much as 16 with 14:59 left in the second half. But Tennessee finally found its shooting stroke and used a 26-2 run in the second half to retake the lead and never looked back en route to an 84-74 victory.
The Vols need Punter: Vols’ senior guard Kevin Punter came into tonight’s game averaging 20 points a contest through two games, but he was held in check to start the game against Marshall tonight. Punter didn’t score his first point for the Vols until 18.5 seconds left in the first half, and those were on free throws. Luckily for the Vols, Punter finally found his shot halfway through the second half and scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half. The Vols have some offensive weapons besides Punter, but he will likely need to be the team’s leading scorer most nights for Tennessee to win.
Dynamic trio does it again: Punter, Robert Hubbs III, and Armani Moore will be Tennessee’s go-to players for offense all season, and they proved yet again on Thursday why that’s the case. The three players came into the game as the Vols’ leading scorers, and they led Tennessee in points against Marshall as well. Both Hubbs and Punter had 19 points on the night, and Moore scored a game-high 20 points. Devon Baulkman added 13 points on the night, while Derek Reese added 13 rebounds.
The Vols will shoot 3s…but they might not make them: Tennessee attempted 23 3-pointers on the night after only attempting 31 as a team in the first two games combined. But the Vols only made 7 of their 23 threes, hitting only 30 percent of their shots from behind the arc. The Vols struggled to hit 3s in the first two games of the year, and that continued again tonight despite the Vols hitting three of their first four 3-pointers.
Free throws no problem: The Vols entered Thursday’s game hitting just 62.8 percent of their free throws in two games, but they drastically improved on that number tonight. Tennessee hit its first 16 free throws before missing their first one over two-thirds of the way through the second half. Tennessee finished hitting 25-of-30 free throws, good for 83 percent.
Cramps didn’t slow down the Vols: Head basketball coach Rick Barnes had to be frustrated after cramping issues plagued the Vols in their first two games. But no such problems reared their head against Marshall tonight, as the Vols were able to stay healthy and weren’t hampered by any nagging injuries or cramps down the stretch and were able to pull ahead without anything holding them back.
Final stats of the night:
Your final stats in Tennessee’s 84-74 victory over Marshall: pic.twitter.com/aeCCJ0vojo
— Rocky Top Insider (@rockytopinsider) November 20, 2015
