Tennessee basketball escaped Stegeman Coliseum with an 85-79 whirlwind victory on Saturday afternoon thanks to Dalton Knecht’s 36-point performance.
The Vols played very well for the first 15 minutes of the game, building a 14-point lead. But careless turnovers and fouls opened the door for Georgia and the Bulldogs came bursting through with a 15-0 run around halftime.
Georgia didn’t look back from there, using hot shooting to push its lead to 11-points with just over six minutes remaining. With its back against the wall, Tennessee came flying back ending the game on a 15-1 run to win thanks to nine points from Knecht.
“Dalton, you guys have seen him know that when he gets that look in his eye, he can go do this,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said postgame. “And he did. He did it.”
Knecht was the star but he wasn’t the only player that stepped up for Tennessee. Zakai Zeigler scored 18 points and after turning the ball over six times in the first half, he didn’t turn it over once while playing all 20 minutes in the second half.
Jonas Aidoo was crucial on the inside too. After getting pushed around at Mississippi State earlier in the week, Aidoo responded with 10 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks for his fourth double-double of the season.
RTI’s Ric Butler and Ryan Schumpert were in Athens covering the game and broke down all the action afterwards. Check it out here.
