After a nail-biting final 10 minutes of the contest on Thursday night in Orlando, the Tennessee Volunteers are officially moving onto the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
The four-seed Volunteers defeated the 13-seed Louisiana by a score of 58-55 in the Orlando Magic’s home arena of the Amway Center.
While Tennessee was in control for the first 3 quarters of the 40-minute game, Louisiana made it a classic March Madness contest. The Ragin’ Cajuns rallied from being down 18 points to just a three-point deficit in crunch time as Tennessee’s offense struggled to close the game out effectively. Still, though, Tennessee’s defense was too much to handle.
Per the NCAA’s game notes, Tennessee’s second-ranked defense in terms of field-goal percentage held Louisiana to its lowest field-goal percentage of the season at 40%.
After the game was over, RTI hosts Ric Butler and Ryan Schumpert recorded a postgame podcast from Orlando. The guys discuss their reactions to the game, their quick thoughts on what’s next with five-seed Duke on Saturday, and more.
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