After a two-game road trip, Tennessee returned to Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center Tuesday night where they coasted past Florida for an 85-66 victory.
The Vols jumped out to an early lead and didn’t look back in front of a limited home crowd due to snow in the area. Tennessee’s scoring came from two-players against the Gators as Dalton Knecht and Jonas Aidoo combined for 58 points.
Knecht did the heavy lifting, scoring a season-best 39 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the field and four-of-six shooting from three-point range. The super senior scored 20 points in the final 7:05 of the first half in a remarkably efficient scoring stretch.
“That was pretty impressive,” Rick Barnes said postgame. “I thought his teammates started feeling it, too, that he knew that (Knecht) was in a little bit of, obviously, a good rhythm, a good place, and him trying to really get him the ball. And know that when he gets that look that he was going to go with it.”
When Knecht wasn’t scoring, Aidoo was. The junior big man totaled 19 points on nine-of-16 shooting and added nine points, two blocks and a steal in the victory.
Following the game, RTI’s Ric Butler and Ryan Schumpert discussed the big performance’s, Tennessee’s strong defense and more. Check it out here.
