By Camden Gober
Tennessee has had its fair share of blown leads this season, but on Wednesday night, the Vols weathered the storm down the stretch to soar past Oklahoma, 89-66.
Nate Ament flashed again as he continues to play with a lot of confidence. Ament finished the night with a game-high 29 points, tying his season-high. Ament shot an efficient 9-for-17 from the field and an impressive 8-for-8 from the free-throw line.
“I wouldn’t trade Nate for anybody because he’s coming here and has done everything and more,” said Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes.
Ament is getting to his spots a lot easier than he was earlier this season, and his confidence keeps skyrocketing as shots continue to fall. To me, the biggest difference is his ability to finish through contact.
Ament still gets run off the line at times, but his ability to draw contact and now finish through that contact has been the breakthrough he’s looked for.
Despite not having J.P. Estrella due to a lower extremity injury, the Vols’ frontcourt trio of DeWayne Brown, Felix Okpara, and Jaylen Carey had to step up in his absence.
The three-man wrecking crew did just that, and more.
Okpara had one of his best games in a Tennessee uniform on Wednesday night, finishing with a season-best 18 points and seven rebounds. Okpara also finished the night an impressive seven for ten from the field, and 4-for-5 from the charity stripe.
“He’s as good of a lob threat as there is in the country,” said Barnes.
Brown also had one of his better nights in a Tennessee uniform, finishing with 13 points and three rebounds. Carey rounded off the big three with seven points and seven rebounds of his own.
Tennessee’s frontcourt finished with a combined 38 points and 17 rebounds, compared to a whopping zero points from Oklahoma’s frontline.
“Their five spot between Carey, Okpara, and Brown had 38 points. Our guys had zero,” said Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser.
Tennessee’s half-court defense was extremely impressive against what was one of the most high-powered offenses in college basketball. The Vols caused the Sooner offense all kinds of trouble in the half-court all night long.
Tennessee forced 15 turnovers on the night, scoring an outstanding 31 points off those turnovers. The Vols’ defense led to so many easy transition buckets, which is where Tennessee is at its best offensively.
“They did an outstanding job converging to the ball,” said Moser. “You can’t spot a team 31 points off turnovers.”
A huge part of that success defensively was the active hands of Ja’Kobi Gillespie.
Gillespie finished with a school-record eight steals on the night, which led to numerous runouts for the transition offense.
What’s even more impressive than the number of turnovers that the Vols forced was the surprising lack of turnovers by the Tennessee offense. Turnovers have been this team’s Achilles’ heel all season long, but tonight the Vols finished with just seven turnovers, including only two in the first half.
“It’s a critical thing that we’ve been talking about all year and hoping we can build on it,” said Barnes.
Tennessee (19-7, 9-4) looks to stay hot on Saturday afternoon as the Vols head to the mid-state to take on in-state rival, the Vanderbilt Commodores (21-4, 8-4). Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.