No. 8 Tennessee won its fifth-straight game to begin the 2020 season on Monday evening inside of Thompson-Boling Arena with a 102-66 victory over Saint Joseph’s.
Six different Vols reached double-figures as it scored 100 points for the second-consecutive game. It’s the first time since Bruce Pearl’s 2009 team that Tennessee has scored 100 points in back-to-back games. Pearl’s team scored 104 points against UNC-Asheville and 105 against East Carolina.
Redshirt junior Victor Bailey Jr. led the way for the Vols with a game-high 18 points. Bailey shot 5-of-10 from the field and 2-of-7 from behind the 3-point line. He added three assists and a steal in 25 minutes of action.
Santiago Vescovi was Tennessee’s second-leading scorer on the night with 16 points. Vescovi nearly tallied a double-double with seven rebounds and five assists to go along with his 4-of-8 shooting from three.
Yves Pons chipped in 13 points, while Keon Johnson scored 12, respectively. John Fulkerson and Jaden Springer each had 10 points apiece.
Tennessee’s (5-0) streak of holding an opponent to under 60 points came to an end, but they still held the Hawks (0-5) to just 40% shooting from the field. The Hawks were shooting well under 40% for much of the game until some garbage time buckets. UT forced 18 turnovers that led to 27 points off of turnovers.
Saint Joe’s led once at the beginning of the game after a three to put them up 3-2 with 18:26 to go. It was the Hawks’ only lead. Pons hit a jumper the next time down the floor to spark an 18-1 run that gave Tennessee a commanding 20-4 lead with 14:04 remaining in the first half.
The Vols led the remainder of the half and took a 56-33 lead into the halftime break. Bailey had a team-high 13 points in the opening frame on 4-of-6 shooting. Tennessee shot 6-of-10 from three as a team.
It was much sloppier in the second half as the referees had a quick whistle for much of the final 20 minutes. Both teams were called for a combine 26 fouls. There were 52 fouls called in total, good enough for more than a foul call a minute. Tennessee made 3o of its 37 free throw attempts.
The Vols won the second half 46-33 despite the game being slowed down due to foul calls. Vescovi led the way over the final 20 minutes, scoring eight points. Tennessee shot 44.1% from the field and held St. Joe’s to 1-of-11 shooting from three.
Ryan Daly was St. Joe’s leading-scorer. Daly had 13 points on 4-of-11 shooting and turned it over seven times. Dahmir Bishop (12), Rahmir Moore (10) and Taylor Funk were the only other Hawks to score double-figures.
Tennessee has one more game remaining before conference play begins. The Vols will face USC-Upstate inside of Thompson-Boling on Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. ET. They’ll then travel to Missouri on Dec. 30 for their first SEC contest.
“When you get into conference play, everything gets turned up a level,” Rick Barnes said.
