Tennessee Beats WVU, 74-72
NEWARK, N.J. -- In a game that saw each team shoot just 39 percent from the field, No. 7 Tennessee felt like it was lucky to walk out of the Prudential Center as winners on Friday night and advance to the Legends Classic championship game against No. 15 Texas Saturday evening.
Leading much of the way, Tennessee found itself unravelling late in the second half and up by seven points. Two straight techinical fouls, one on head coach Bruce Pearl and the other on Wayne Chism, found the game tied. A jumper then gave the Mountaineers the lead, but only briefly.
JaJuan Smith made sure that the Vols weren't going to lose, hitting two straight threes to put Tennessee back up, and coming down the stretch, it was Chris Lofton who hit a three, followed by Tyler Smith hitting free throws to ice the game and put it out of reach, with the Vols hanging on to win 74-72.
It was another off night shooting-wise for Tennessee star Chris Lofton. With so much preseason hype, Lofton has disappointed in the first five games of the season. He shot just 5-for-15, including 3-of-10 from downtown, but did finish with a game-high 19 points thanks to ten trips to the free-throw line, where he converted six times.
Chism added 17 points and seven rebounds, while JaJuan Smith had 15 points for Tennessee.
As for the Mountaineers, Bob Huggins team fell to 2-1 on the season, despite great efforts by Da'Sean Butler, Darris Nichols and Alex Ruoff. Butler finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, Nichols had 15 points while Ruoff poured in 14 points and also had five assists.
While Tennessee head coach said after the game that West Virginia took the Vols out of their offense, they were still able to get the job done.
"They played some great defense on us," Pearl said. "They didn't allow us to get anything going, and we couldn't make any pass we wanted."
Huggins said after the game that it wasn't really anything they were trying to do, it was just a matter of not being familiar with each other.
"We can't do what they do in practice offensively," Huggins said,"and they can't do what we do defensively in practice, that's all that was."
Two areas that Huggins has said this season that are concerns are defense and rebounding. Pearl thought those were the best two areas of the Mountaineers night, as they outrebounded the Vols, 42-33, and held Tennessee to 39-percent shooting.
"We have a bunch of kids out there besides two guys," Huggins said of his team's youth. "We still have a long way to go, and I don't believe in morale victories."
Tennessee will now face one of the best teams they'll see all season, when they face the Longhorns tomorrow night. Pearl already has high-praise for Texas.
"They are going to be one of the best offenses we see all season," Pearl said. "With those two guards back there, they are two of the best in the nation."
West Virginia will face New Mexico State in the opener tomorrow, in what should be an interesting contrast of styles. The Aggies like to push, while the Mountaineers will look to employ a press.
Either way, it's all more experience for Huggins and his Mountaineers.
As for Tennessee, Pearl is worried about the law of averages.
"We've faced them the last two years, and we won both of them," Pearl said. "We won down in Austin in what was one of the greatest games of my career, and then last year I think we were very fortunate to win that game. So I'm worried about the law of averages."
One thing he'll certainly be worried about his No. 3 for Texas, A.J. Abrams. Appropriately numbered, Abrams has hit 17 three-pointers in his last two games.
It should be fun.
