The Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball team celebrate after defeating Georgia at Thompson-Boling Arena on March 3, 2018. Alex Holcomb / The Daily Beacon
Vols clinch share of SEC title for first time since 2008
Damichael Cole
Asst. Sports Editor Shortly before tipoff of Tennessee’s game against Georgia, the result of the Auburn versus South Carolina game had been decided. The Tigers held off the Gamecocks, meaning the Vols game against the Bulldogs was being played for a chance to win a share of the SEC championship. An SEC Championship is something Tennessee fans hadn’t seen since the season of 2008, so they were more than prepared for the occasion. For the third time this year, the Vols had a sellout crowd in attendance, and they used it to their advantage down the stretch in a 66-61 win over the Bulldogs. “They knew what they were playing for and I really had talked about at some point in time we need to break through and beat Georgia,” head
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coach Rick Barnes said. “We knew it was going to be tough.” The win snaps Georgia’s five-game winning streak over the Vols, clinching Tennessees’s first SEC regular season Championship since 2008. Unusual Trends: The last five games of the Georgia-Tennessee has brought unusual trends, and that continued on Saturday in Thompson-Boling Arena. Entering the game, the Bulldogs ranked 13th in the SEC in 3-point shooting, and the Vols were one of the best SEC teams at defending the 3-pointer. Using the numbers, Georgia 3-pointers seemed like it’d be on of the Vols least concerns, but that change quickly. In the first half, the Vols allowed the Bulldogs to shoot 7-of-12 (58%) from three-point range. In the second half, the Vols fared much better against the 3-pointer, holding the Bulldogs to 1-of-6 in the second half. “I thought they were terrific in the first half,” Barnes said. “I told the team at halftime
I thought we guarded well. I thought some of them were tough shots.” Many times this season, the Vols have been the team getting out to a quick start, controlling the first half. Saturday, that wasn’t the case. Instead, the Bulldogs grabbed the lead early in the first half, forcing the Vols to play from behind. This time, it was Tennessee closing the game out strong, overcoming a slow start. Overall, the Vols trailed for over 31 minutes in the game, and spent another three minutes tied. “I just hey, this is not going to be easy, it’s not supposed to be easy, and we stayed with it,” Barnes said. Duo leads the way: Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield have been the top-scoring options for the Vols all season, and they showed why against Georgia. Each player notched 12 points in the first half, keeping the Vols within reach of the Bulldogs. In the second half Schofield and Williams
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continued to lead the attack—finishing with a combined 45 points—scoring 23 and 22 points, respectively. Williams was on the bad side of a few foul calls that led to him fouling out with 3:33 left in the game. With Williams out of the game, it was Schofield who hit the game-winning shot to put the Vols over the edge. “The biggest thing, is it’s next man up,” Schofield said. “The biggest thing for me was asserting myself as the alpha-dog and it worked out.” What’s next: An Auburn win sealed the Vols into the number two seeding in the SEC Tournament next weekend in St. Louis. The Vols will play Friday evening at 7 p.m. eastern (6 p.m. central). They’ll play the winner of Texas A&M and LSU. “Everything we’ve done in the off-season is adding up, and we still have more to do,” Schofield said.
Monday, March 5, 2018