Vols fall to Cats, miss on SEC title
ST. LOUIS — The opening tipoff came with the haze of dry ice used during starting lineup announcements still lingering over the court and a heightened sense of tension permeating the arena where Tennessee had defeated Mississippi State on Friday and Arkansas on Saturday.
Those first two games in the Southeastern Conference tournament mattered for the second-seeded Volunteers, but Sunday’s game really mattered to a team looking to become the program’s first since 1979 to win the league tourney.
That’s why as confetti fell in the moments after the Vols’ 77-72 loss to fourth-seeded Kentucky at Scottrade Center, there were gloomy looks on the faces of Tennessee players who would find out just a few hours later they had earned the program’s highest NCAA tournament seed in a decade.
“It’s hard to really flush that,” Admiral Schofield said after scoring a team-high 22 points for 13th-ranked Tennessee (25-8). “We’ve got something to look forward to … but we wanted to go out and win this thing for our university, our families, our coaching staff and each other after all the hard work we put in.”
A delegation of university officials and high-profile boosters sat a few rows behind the Tennessee bench and combined with a smattering of fans to create a small but vocal minority of orange in the midst of a Kentucky blue crowd of 18,973.
Tennessee led 2-0 off a Jordan Bone feed to Grant Williams, who had a defender sealed in the post for an easy layup. Then nothing came easy. The arena was raucous early as Kentucky (24-10), still riding the hot shooting of its 86-63 semifinal win over Alabama, jumped out to a 33-16 lead with 4:33 left in the first half.
“The start didn’t help us in any way, but you can’t blame it on any one part of the game,” Bone said. “We got back in the game, and we simply didn’t finish out.”
Schofield made sure Tennessee got back in the game. The junior forward scored the Vols’ final 13 points of the first half as they closed to within 36-31 at halftime. Schofield completed a 25-5 run that spanned halves when he hit another 3-pointer to put Tennessee up 41-38 with 16:39 remaining in the game.
But Kentucky punched back. The Wildcats were led by 29 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who iced the game by making two free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining. The former Hamilton Heights Christian Academy star, who also had seven rebounds, three assists and two steals against the Vols, was named the tournament’s MVP.
Also in double figures for Kentucky, which avenged a pair of regular-season losses to the Vols, were Kevin Knox (18 points), Wenyen Gabriel (12) and Quade Green (10).
The Vols’ Williams finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals. Bone had 12 points and Lamonte Turner 10, each with four assists.
Schofield, who also had 10 rebounds, was named to the all-tournament team.
“He was big, man,” Bone said of Schofield. “He was the main reason why we had another shot at this. Congratulations to him. He helped us a lot, but collectively as a team we just didn’t get the job done.”
Schofield left the game for several minutes late in the second half after running into a Kentucky’s player’s rear with his face and injuring his nose. Tennessee took a 57-55 lead with 7:47 remaining before Kentucky surged ahead again and stayed in front thanks to key offensive rebounds.
“A couple of ill-advised possessions on the offensive end and then a (missed) free-throw line block-out there at the end of the game was a really big play we gave up,” third-year Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “Hopefully our guys will learn that a free-throw line block-out and one or two ill-advised plays will cost you. It did today.”
Therein was a redemptive theme packaged within a painful loss for Tennessee, which shared the SEC regular-season title with Auburn.
A missed championship opportunity stung. But in the sea of confetti and Kentucky blue, there were lessons learned for the next tournament and its even higher stakes.
“Everybody is pretty down right now, but we have a pretty good opportunity to make a run in the NCAA tournament,” Bone said. “It’s been a couple years since Tennessee has been able to do that.
“We’re just ready, man. I just feel like this is going to be motivation heading into the tournament.”
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @ DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.
“Everybody is pretty down right now, but we have a pretty good opportunity to make a run in the NCAA tournament. It’s been a couple years since Tennessee has been able to do that.” – JORDAN BONE