MTSU had No. 1 Tennessee basketball on the ropes for 30 minutes on Monday night. But the Vols found another gear in the second half to survive the scare 82-64 and improve to 12-0 on the season.
Here’s three quick takeaways.
Tennessee Trails At Halftime For The First Time
Facing the best mid major team on its schedule two days before Christmas was enough to put Tennessee in a trap game spot.
But the Vols came out locked in against MTSU. Tennessee made eight of its first 15 shots from the field, took care of the basketball and played mostly solid defense while opening up an 11-point lead in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Tennessee brought Zakai Zeigler to the bench around that point and the Vols started to get sloppy offensively. The Vols turned it over on five straight possessions with the last coming with Zeigler back on the court. MTSU didn’t make a big charge there but they did a good job of cutting into Tennessee’s lead.
It was later in the first half, when Tennessee’s offense cut down on the turnovers but remained stagnant, that MTSU made its run. The Blue Raiders caught fire from deep, making five of their final eight three-point attempts including a pair of heavily contested ones to end the half.
That was enough to give MTSU a 40-34 halftime advantage and put the top-ranked Vols on the ropes. It was the first time all season that Tennessee trailed at halftime.
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Tennessee’s Backcourt Leads The Way
In Tennessee’s first tight game of the season, the Vols found a way to win at Illinois despite stars Zakai Zeigler and Chaz Lanier battling foul trouble. But in its second close game of the season against MTSU, Tennessee’s star back court led them to the victory.
Zeigler was stellar running the show for Tennessee. He totaled his second double-double of the season and was in complete command of the Vols’ offense on his way to totaling 17 points and 15 assists though he did turn it over four times.
Lanier also did what he does best— knocking down shots from the perimeter. The super senior shooting guard struggled to get much offense going from three-point range but he was stellar from beyond the arc. Lanier went for a team-high 23 points on five-of-10 shooting from three-point range.
Credit Jahmai Mashack too. He got banged up at multiple points, took just one shot from the field and still made a major impact on the game with how he set the tone defensively. That was especially the case in the opening minutes of the second half when the Vols clawed into MTSU’s lead.
Tennessee’s Suffocating Defense Helps Them Pull Away
Tennessee was less sloppy on the offensive end in the second half and played well enough on that end to overcome a six-point halftime deficit and win. But it was the Vols’ defense that guaranteed that and allowed them to take control of the game.
The Vols had a completely different energy and intensity from the first possession of the second half and that continued throughout the final 20 minutes. Nothing MTSU got in the second half was easy and the Vols forced them to shoot an abundance of contested triples.
The key stretch came midway through the second half when Tennessee didn’t make a basket and only scored six points in just under six minutes. But during that time, MTSU scored only five points. When Lanier ended the stretch with a layup and Jordan Gainey hit a triple the next possession the Vols led by 11 points and the game was all but over.
MTSU scored just 24 points in the second half after scoring 40 points in the first half. That allowed the Vols to not just win but to coast down the stretch.
Final Stats
Up Next
Tennessee has a few days off for Christmas before returning to action on New Years Eve against Norfolk State in its final game in its non conference slate. Tipoff is at 3 p.m. ET at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
