No. 4 Tennessee suffered their second loss at home this season in the regular season finale with an 85-81 loss to No. 15 Kentucky on Saturday afternoon.
Tennessee still will head into the SEC Tournament as the one-seed following their SEC regular season championship but won’t be heading to Nashville on an eight-game win streak anymore.
Dalton Knecht, one of Tennessee’s four seniors honored before the game, reached the 40-point mark for the first time in his career on Saturday after coming close a handful of times throughout the season. But for as productive as Knecht was against Kentucky, it was the Wildcats’ impressive shooting night that kept the Vols from taking the lead throughout the game.
Kentucky’s shooters finished the game 46 percent from the floor with 52 percent from the perimeter while Tennessee shot just 38 percent from the floor and 33 percent from the three-point arc.
Tennessee guard Zakai Zeigler finished the game as the Vols’ second-leading scorer with 17 points and nine assists while Jonas Aidoo ended the game with 11 points and eight rebounds.
After the game, Kentucky head coach John Calipari led off the postgame press conferences from Knoxville and was followed by Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes. U.T. also sent two of their four seniors, Josiah-Jordan James and Knecht, to the media room to break down their thoughts on the game and their final appearance in Thompson Boling Arena.
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Check out all three press conference interviews below:
Tennessee HC Rick Barnes
Kentucky HC John Calipari
Tennessee G Dalton Knecht, F Josiah-Jordan James
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