No. 12 Tennessee found their fourth straight win after three straight losses on Saturday night with a 79-70 win over NC State in the Hall of Fame Series.
Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler and guard Josiah-Jordan James were the big stories of the game with their scoring, particularly from the three-point line. Zeigler went 4-of-8 from range for 20 points while James hit 5-of-7 from deep for a total of 23 points on the night.
“[Zakai] really, in some ways, dominated the tempo and flow of the game in terms of what he did,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said about Zeigler after the game. “The four steals were big in terms of disrupting them. You look at his line, it’s a great line, and you look at the fact that he got his players involved. He knew what he needed to do, his teammates.”
Jonas Aidoo (four points, four rebounds) was under the weather for the game and Dalton Knecht (two points, one rebound) didn’t have his best performance, but the Vols had other players such as Jahmai Mashack and Tobe Awaka step up and perform.
Tennessee led NC State 34-31 at halftime and turned that into a nine-point win by the end of the game.
After the conclusion of the contest, Barnes, Zeigler, and James all met with the media during the postgame press conference. Check it out below.
Tennessee’s (8-3, 5-0 home) next game will be in Knoxville this Thursday against Tarleton State (8-2, 2-2 away).
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Tennessee HC Rick Barnes, Zakai Zeigler, and Josiah-Jordan James
