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Three different Kentucky basketball players made three-plus three-pointers and Tennessee struggled to find offensive consistency as the hot-shooting Wildcats knocked off No. 12 Tennessee 78-73 on Tuesday night.
Here’s three quick takeaways as the Vols dropped their second straight game.
Zakai Zeigler Injury Sparks Run To End The Half
Tennessee trailed 30-22 with just over two minutes to play in the first half when Zakai Zeigler went down with a right ankle injury and ran all the way up the tunnel towards the Vols’ locker room after the fact.
To that point in the game, Tennessee’s offense had struggled badly and the Vols were shooting just two-of-15 from three-point range. But Zeigler going down with an injury sparked Tennessee.
Felix Okpara missed the two free throws that the foul Zeigler drew earned Tennessee but Jahmai Mashack rebounded the missed free throw and the possession ended with a Jordan Gainey triple.
It was a start of an 11-0 run to end the first half that gave Tennessee its first lead of the game entering the halftime break. Making shots from the perimeter was key. Gainey hit a pair of triples and Chaz Lanier made his first shot of the night.
After the two-of-15 start from deep, Tennessee made three of its final five attempts from deep to end the half. Pair that with strong defense and the Vols had themselves a kill shot run.
Kentucky Blitzes Tennessee From Deep
Kentucky entered the game as one of the nation’s best three-point shooting teams and they shot the ball at an incredibly high clip against Tennessee.
The Wildcats hit 12-of-24 attempts from three-point range with 48% of their made field goals coming from three-point range.
Kentucky jumped out to an early lead by making four of its first five three-point attempts and then did the exact same thing to start the second half. The Wildcats stifled Tennessee’s momentum coming out of the locker room by doing the exact same thing.
Mark Pope’s team made four of its first five three-point attempts to open the second half and nine of its first 12 attempts from the field. That red-hot shooting stretch turned a three-point halftime deficit into an 11 point advantage for Kentucky.
It completely flipped the game and Tennessee was never quite able to recover.
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Tennessee’s Three-Point Shooting Fails Them
The Vols’ offense has struggled to this point in SEC play but Tuesday night’s game seemed like a great chance to break out of their recent struggles.
Tennessee has been much better offensively at home so far in conference play and Kentucky entered the game as one of the SEC’s worst defensive teams.
But the Vols’ offense once again struggled. Tennessee got a lot of open shots but they shot poorly, making just 24% of its shots from three-point range. Once again, Tennessee struggled to find any sort of consistent rim offense as its three-point shooting faltered.
Tennessee continues to need more offense from Chaz Lanier who scored just 15 points on three-of-10 shooting from three-point range. The same can be said for Zakai Zeigler’s perimeter shooting as he made just one-of-11 attempts
Like we saw agains Auburn, Tennessee can hang in games when they shoot poorly. But Kentucky’s hot shooting was too much for the Vols.
Final Stats
Up Next
Tennessee basketball returns to Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Saturday when they host No. 5 Florida. Tipoff is at noon ET and ESPN is broadcasting the game.