Vols stifle Wright State to advance
DALLAS – Tennessee basketball didn’t play much like a team that was experiencing the NCAA Tournament for the first time Thursday.
Instead, the Vols erased any early jitters quickly and locked in on defense and rebounding – the two things that junior center Kyle Alexander stressed lead to championships last week in St. Louis.
“It’s a level of maturity,” guard Jordan Bone said. “We all have our goal. We want to be national champions. We are going to work as hard as we can. We came into this game saying no regrets – have no regrets leaving this court.
“I feel like everyone is bought in and gave their full effort. Hopefully, we are going to get the results.”
The first result was an impressively composed and controlled victory. Tennessee stifled Wright State and got bigtime showings from Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams to cruise to a 73-47 win against Wright State at American Airlines Center.
“If we play the way we know we can play, we feel like we can do that often,” Williams said. “Just had to execute the game plan that we were prepared with.”
Schofield recorded a double-double for the No. 3-seeded Vols (26-8) with 15 points and 11 rebounds, putting the exclamation point on the win with a thundering dunk in the final minutes. Williams and guard Lamonte Turner fell just shy of having double-doubles.
Williams scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while Turner had a game-high 19 points and a careerhigh nine assists as the Vols made quick work of No. 14 Wright State (25-10).
“It’s all about business,” guard Jorfield dan Bowden said. “Just business. Taking one game and knowing it’s important. Every game is important.”
UT kept an opponent to fewer than 50 points for the second time this season, holding Wright State to a seasonlow 47 points. The Vols also limited the Raiders to 31.7 percent shooting – the best mark of the season.
“We were locked in,” Bone said. “That was our goal coming into this game, to be as solid as possible on the defensive end. The offense will take care of itself. We executed it well.
“Our defense was amazing. We held them to our goal, which is under 65 points. We got a lot of stops and it led to easy baskets on the offensive end.”
Tennessee took control early with its defense, holding the Raiders without a goal for more than six minutes to take a 13-point lead. Turner was thrilled with that stretch to set the tone, but gave the defensive performance a Cgrade.
Turner cited easy baskets allowed late in the first half after Tennessee opened its early lead as an issue.
“This time of year, you’re looking for perfection,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said. “I thought when we got the lead – even in the first half – I didn’t think we defended well in the last five minutes of the first half.”
The Vols led by 11 at halftime, then raced away in the second half and outrebounded the Raiders 44-32.
Kyle Alexander got a 10-0 run started before Turner and Schofield hit backto-back 3-pointers. Bone ended the spurt with a jumper, Tennessee took a 21-point lead and the Vols marched on to the second round.
“Coming into a tournament like this, it’s hard to get that first win,” Bone said. “We got the first win, we took care of business. I feel like everyone settled in. I feel like the next game will be much tougher. We got rid of any jitters – if there were any – and we are ready to play the next team.”
The dunk
The Vols were plenty excited about the win, but were also geeked about Schofield’s dunk. With less than three minutes left, the junior drove hard to the baseline against Wright State’s Loudon Love.
Then he rose up and dunked over Love and Everett Winchester with a huge one-handed slam.
“I saw him take off and thought he was about to float it,” Bone said. “He just flushed it. It kind of took me by surprise.”
Turner said Schofield is a “baseline, LeBron-type dunker” and said he’s a better dunker than Williams, who had a two-handed big dunk himself in the first half.
“The first time I have ever seen him do that,” Williams said of Schofield’s dunk. “So a 10 out of 10 because I won’t see him do that again.”
Williams often challenges Schofield to dunk accordingly because he knows his teammate is capable of doing it. It’s just a matter of going.
“I can do it a lot more,” Schofield said. “I’ve just got to do it.”
Up next
Tennessee faces No. 11 Loyola-Chicago (29-5) on Saturday in Dallas.