Vols win, finish third in Battle 4 Atlantis
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Tennessee’s men’s basketball team started and finished the Battle 4 Atlantis the same way — with a win.
Grant Williams scored 14 points to help Tennessee beat North Carolina State 67-58 in Friday’s third-place game, capping a three-day stay in the Bahamas that began with an overtime win against 18th-ranked Purdue.
Jordan Bowden scored all 10 of his points after halftime for the Volunteers (4-1). That included a long jump shot to beat the shot clock with 43.3 seconds left, keeping Tennessee in control down the stretch as the Wolfpack tried to mount a comeback.
Neither team played well in the first half, combining for 33 percent shooting and 28 turnovers. Tennessee ultimately converted enough N.C. State turnovers into scores to build a 30-23 halftime lead, then stayed in front with a cleaner performance through the second half.
“The bottom line is I like our team, I think our team likes themselves,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said. “And they want to be good. But I do think they played that first half like they had a big old huge piano on their back.”
Tennessee shot 38 percent but made 8 of 18 3-pointers
“The bottom line is I like our team, I think our team likes themselves. And they want to be good. But I do think they played that first half like they had a big old huge piano on their back.”
— VOLS BASKETBALL COACH RICK BARNES
and scored 22 points off 21 Wolfpack turnovers, though 18 points came off 16 firsthalf turnovers. The Vols cut down their own turnovers from 12 in the first half to four in the second, then did enough late to hang on.
“I feel like we executed a little bit up late, especially on the defensive end,” Williams said. “It’s just multiple stops, and that’s what we needed to do.”
N.C. State (5-2) opened its stay in the Bahamas with a headline-grabbing upset of No. 2 Arizona under new coach Kevin Keatts. But the Wolfpack couldn’t recreate that same edge in the next two games.
Allerik Freeman scored 14 points to lead the Wolfpack, though he shot just 4-of-18 from the field and 1-of-8 from behind the arc. N.C. State made just three of 16 3s and hurt itself also by making just 13 of 22 free throws.
“You look at the next two games (after the Arizona win), I feel like we were never out of the game and we had opportunities to win both of those games,” Keatts said. “But I do think as a team, early on with a new staff and a bunch of new players, we have to go back to the drawing board and now we have to figure out obviously how not to beat ourselves.”
“We did some good things, we did some bad things,” said forward Lennard Freeman, who had 11 points and six rebounds. “So we’ve just got to learn from it.”
In additon to his 14 points, Tennessee’s Williams had six rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals in 27 minutes. He had scored 22 and 20 points in the first two tournament games.
“We ask him to do a lot,” Barnes said.