No. 1 Tennessee basketball climbed back into the win column on Saturday evening in a hard-fought 74-70 victory over the Texas Longhorns.
“I feel like I can get by anybody at any given time…I got 100% confidence I can get by whoever,” said senior guard Zakai Zeigler postgame.
With four seconds on the shot clock and a minute remaining in the game, Zakai Zeigler rushed past Tre Johnson and made an inside-hand layup on the left side of the court to give the Vols a five-point advantage to win the game ultimately.
Texas and Tennessee continued their gritty play from last March in Charlotte, where the Volunteers once again prevailed in a low-scoring, low-possession match.
Tennessee basketball trailed for much of the second half, seeming unable to overcome the deficit and grab the lead. The unlikeliest of heroes appeared for Tennessee, as the Vols did just enough to slow down Tre Johnson and win 74-70 in Austin.
Entering Saturday, a battle between Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier and Texas’ Tre Johnson, two of the SEC’s top three scorers, was expected. After all, while Lanier struggled, Johnson was the best player on the court.
Tennessee did an excellent job of defending the Longhorns, making nearly every shot difficult. However, Tre Johnson lived up to his hype and carried the Longhorns.
Star freshman Tre Johnson, who posted only 22 points on 7-of-26 shooting in his previous two SEC games, exploded against the Volunteers. Johnson scored 26 points on a remarkably effective 11-of-17 overall and 4-of-8 three-point shooting effort. Even when the defense was solid, the talented rookie found ways to make tough baskets and keep Texas’ attack going.
At the 14-minute mark in the second half, Johnson went on a 10-point run by himself for the next two and a half minutes. Despite a hot start, he only had one basket in the final 11:32 of the game, attracting lots of attention from the SEC’s best defensive team.
Texas’ Jordan Pope added 17 points on 7-of-14 shooting, while Tramon Mark contributed 10 points despite an apparent ankle issue.
Texas forward Arthur Kaluma, who scored a career-high 34 points in the Longhorns’ 87-82 loss to No. 2 Auburn on Tuesday, only had four points and six rebounds.
Tennessee outrebounded Texas 41-27 as well.
With this defeat, Texas falls to 0-3 in SEC play and 0-13 all-time against a No. 1 team.
Takeaway #1: Unlikely heroes: Dubar and Okpara
No one was more important to Tennessee than Darlinstone Dubar. Before the contest, the Hofstra transfer had only made one three-pointer in a game this season. He hit three against the Longhorns, finishing with 12 points and six rebounds in just 17 minutes.
The Hofstra transfer has been trying to find a place on Rick Barnes’ thin roster. Dubar has been looking for a position since his departure from the team at the start of the season. He played key minutes against Texas on Saturday despite having limited court time.
Dubar’s 12 points arrived when the team needed them the most. His first basket came during the first half when Tennessee trailed 11-8. His shot tied the game and contributed to the Volunteers’ subsequent 9-0 surge.
The next make came as the Vols were behind following Texas’ guard Tre Johnson’s difficult stepback three. With his second basket from behind the arc in the second half, Dubar knotted the game at 43-43.
With 6:53 left in the game and the Vols trailing by two points, Dubar responded to a Gainey 3-point miss with a thunderous putback dunk to tie the game at 56-all. “I feel like that dunk was really a turning point in the game,” Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler said postgame. “I was saying that to him like, ‘Yo, you just changed the game. You don’t even know. You just changed the game.’”
With less than four minutes remaining, Dubar drilled a three-pointer to give the Vols a 61-60 lead, quieting the crowd as he jogged back to the defensive end.
Ohio State transfer and center Felix Okpara was also huge, scoring seven points on three-of-five shooting. He also blocked three shots on the defensive end and disrupted shots he couldn’t get his hands on.
Earlier in the week, the entire squad encouraged Okpara, telling him he was the best rim protector in the country and that they needed more from him.
Zeigler stated, “Just seeing him in front of the basket, we know it’s going to be some type of confrontation.
Takeaway #2: Balanced scoring spearheaded by Zeigler
For much of this season, Tennessee has been incredibly dependent on a couple of players, particularly Chaz Lanier, to score the basketball.
Following a poor 3-for-16 effort in a defeat to Florida earlier in the week, Lanier did not have the best of beginnings against Texas either. Against the Longhorns, he struggled to get going, scoring 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field. The transfer guard had a hard time creating off the dribble, and Texas made it extremely difficult for Lanier to get open looks from the perimeter.
Although Lanier had a quiet night, Tennessee found a way to keep grinding away offensively with balance. Four players scored in double digits, led by Zakai Zeigler, who had 16 points and eight assists.
All eight Tennessee players who played made at least two shots and scored four or more points.
Takeaway #3: Turnovers cost Tennessee offensively
Tennessee’s offensive problems versus Texas were characterized by turnovers. The Vols coughed up the ball ten times in the first 15 minutes of the game, and their offense was unsurprisingly poor, scoring only 19 points during that time.
Tennessee’s attack was effective when it was able to avoid turnovers. Without turning the ball over once, the Vols took the lead with a 12–7 run in the last five minutes of the first half.
That span was representative of the entire game. When Tennessee controlled the ball, they found ways to score, shooting 45% from the field and 43% from three, yet the Volunteers made careless mistakes, turning the ball over 15 times, making life difficult for themselves.
Zakai Zeigler turned it over four times, while Igor Milicic Jr. turned it over three times.
Coach Barnes’ team will need to take better care of the ball as they encounter greater competition in SEC play.
Tennessee basketball will look to build on this momentum and return home on Wednesday and take on the Georgia Bulldogs at 8 p.m. EST live on SEC Network+.
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Next up for Tennessee (15-1, 2-1): vs. Georgia (14-2, 2-1) – Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. EST
Next up for Texas (11-5, 0-3): at Oklahoma (13-3, 0-3) – Jan. 15 at 10 p.m. EST