Take A Look At Kennesaw State (+1600) In The Atlantic Sun Conference
Tennessee used a sluggish performance to get past Georgia, 75-68, and improve to 13-4 in conference play entering Saturday’s showdown with No. 14 Arkansas.
The win ended a five-game losing streak at Stegeman Coliseum that reached back to Bruce Pearl’s final season in Knoxville when Brian Williams’ buzzer beater gave Tennessee the win.
Tennessee’s backcourt struggled Tuesday night in Athens, but a pair of veteran Vols were there to pick them up.
Josiah-Jordan James 23 points marked the third time this season that the junior has tallied a new career high. The junior was one of the few Vols that was locked in from the jump and played a complete game.
The South Carolina native made three triples in a two-minute span as the Vols’ opened up their lead in the second half. James finished the game with eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals.
“Really important,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of James’ performance. “I thought his command out on the floor was really good. You could tell he got in that groove where his midrange game opened up I thought where he was able to get set, he ad a couple great looks from the three-point line. … Josiah, not only did he score the ball well but he rebounded the ball well, had a couple blocks. His minutes at that point in time was the reason we were able to stretch it out.”
Even after James and Tennessee expanded its lead to as many as 15 points, the Vols’ offense struggled and Georgia capitalized on a long scoring drought to cut Tennessee’s lead to four points.
That’s where John Fulkerson came up huge, scoring on back-to-back possessions to extend Tennessee’s lead to eight points and effectively put away the Bulldogs.
“We went through a couple stretches there where I kept telling them ‘we have to let John Fulkerson touch the ball at some point in time,'” Barnes said. “Finally when he did, those were two big baskets that we got.”
Barnes also discussed his backcourts struggles, the fire that destroyed Zakai Zeigler’s family home and more.
