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Tennessee needed a bounce-back win on Saturday after losing big to Florida on Wednesday, Fortunately for the Volunteers, that’s exactly what happened when the team went to Austin to take on Texas on Saturday.
It was far from pretty, but the Vols escaped with a 74-70 victory and improved to 15-1 on the season with a 2-1 SEC mark. The Longhorns, meanwhile, fall to 11-5 overall and 0-3 in conference play.
While Tennessee won, it was an ugly effort for much of the night. The team turned the ball over 14 times, with star guard Zakai Zeigler responsible for 4 of those. The Vols also hit just 70% of their free throws in the game.
However, the Vols were able to hit 43.5% of their 3-point attempts while the Longhorns hit just 28.0%. The Vols also won in the paint, scoring 28 points to the Longhorns’ 16 and out-rebounding the team 42-29.
The top performer for the Vols was Zeigler, who scored 16 points, dished out 8 assists, and came down with 3 rebounds. Darlinstone Dubar and Jordan Gainey had big nights off the bench, with both scoring 12 points. Felix Okpara had a big night on the glass, coming down with a game-high 9 rebounds.
For Texas, star freshman Tre Johnson led the way with 26 points. Zeigler had trouble guarding Johnson all night, but the freshman phenom couldn’t get enough help from his teammates in the end.
Next, the current No. 1-ranked Vols will head back to Knoxville and will take on the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday.
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Bryce Lazenby covers college football for Saturday Down South. A Nashville native, his previous stops include FanSided, Dimers, and The Leaf-Chronicle.
