Back from the Brink: Vols rally from 17 point deficit

by Griffin H.

As a sold-out Thompson-Bowling Arena crowd and a national ESPN GameDay TV audience looked on upon a team down 30-13, they must have said to themselves, “It’s Over.” I know I did. However, the Vols and Tony Jones, wearing the Orange Blazer just as Ray Mears and Bruce Pearl have, would not have it that way. The Vols closed the first half on a 7-0 scoring run to cut the deficit to 30-20 at halftime. Somebody must have gotten this team fired up in the locker room, because Tennessee started right out of the gate gaining speed and momentum along the way. Skylar McBee hit two back-to-back three’s, one of them turning into a four point play. With very little time left, Tobias Harris hit the eventual game winning basket with 1:05 left in the game, putting the Vols up 65-64. Melvin Goins missed a shot got his own rebound and missed again, but it would be Tennessee ball under the basket. Harris was fouled again, and hit both crucial free-throws to give the Vols a 3 point lead with 2.7 seconds left. After Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings called a timeout to set up a play, Brian Williams intercepted the inbounds pass and the Vols won! Scotty Hopson, who missed a wide-open dunk which jump started a Vanderbilt run as well as being 0-for-7 to start, finished with a team high 16 points. Harris had 15 and 9 rebounds, Cameron Tatum had 12 points, and Skylar McBee finished with 10 points. Brian Williams grabbed a team-high 12 boards off the bench, as well as putting up 8 points. The Vols improve to 1-2 in the SEC, and 11-6 overall. This was the team that beat Villanova, Pitt, and Memphis. That is the team that needs to cruise to the Big Dance in March. The Vols will find themselves in Athens taking on a talented Georgia Bulldog team on Tuesday.

In Other UT Sports:

• The Lady Vols made GameDay a sweep beating the Lady Commodores 68-56.

Factoid of the Day: The Lady Commodores have a 26 year losing streak in Knoxville.

Griffin can be reached at teens4tn@gmail.com, or leave a comment.