Tennessee’s super senior leaders Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James played poorly, combining for five points and one field goal while star guards Zakai Zeigler and Dalton Knecht both turned in uncharacteristically bad first halves.
But the Vols found a way to earn a 72-67 win at Missouri on Tuesday night thanks in large part to the play of big men Tobe Awaka and Jonas Aidoo.
The duo combined for 12 of Tennessee’s 27 first half points as the Vols’ offense struggled badly. Both were efficient shooting and were the only players that gave Tennessee anything on that end of the court.
“We were absolutely horrible the first half (offensively),” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on the Vol Network postgame. “I told the team at halftime, I went down by the numbers and I said, how about letting these guys (Awaka and Jonas Aidoo) play a little bit? Let’s get them involved.”
That’s exactly what Tennessee did in the second half. They got the ball to Aidoo on the first possession of the second half and the junior power forward got to the foul line.
But the game really changed with 15:15 left when Barnes and his staff played Awaka and Aidoo together at the same time. The Vols played the two together nearly the rest of the game and they were plus-15 with both of them on the court together.
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Tennessee playing two big men together has been a rare occurrence this season as they’ve leaned into smaller lineups and faster pace. But Awaka and Aidoo were playing as well as any of Tennessee’s players through the first 25 minutes and Barnes made the adjustment.
“I mean I love playing with Jonas,” Awaka said postgame. “He’s a little bit more finesse, lengthy and more of a bruiser. So I think that we would compliment each other pretty well. You know, he can stretch the floor pretty well playing on the outside. I can sort of play towards the inside and we can play off each other pretty well.”
Knecht exploded for 15 points in the second half to end the game with 17 points. But Awaka led the Vols in scoring and Aidoo finished third.
The junior Aidoo scored 14 points on six-of-nine shooting while Awaka totaled a game-high 18 points on six-of-seven shooting while adding 10 rebounds. It was without a doubt the best game of Awaka’s career.
“He and Jonas must have shot 80, 85% and did a good job,” Barnes said postgame. “I thought both of those guys were playing with force.”
There was a lot to not like about Tennessee’s performance against Missouri but they found a new way to win. That’s with playing two guards and leaning on its big men.
“The post guys got it done for us tonight,” Barnes said.
