Game Recap: Men’s Basketball | January 11, 2025
AUSTIN, Texas – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team claimed a hard-fought 74-70 road victory Saturday night at Texas.
Senior guard Zakai Zeigler paced top-ranked Tennessee (15-1, 2-1 SEC) with 16 points and a game-high eight assists in triumph during which neither side led by greater than seven in front of a near-capacity crowd of 10,195 the Moody Center.
Both teams got off to slow starts offensively, but the Volunteers used a 9-0 run in 2:42 to grab a six-point edge, 17-11, at the 8:51 mark of the first half. They held Texas (11-5, 0-4 SEC) scoreless for three-plus minutes, their second time doing so in the opening stanza, along with the initial 3:11.
The Longhorns countered with a 13-2 burst in 2:17, capped with eight straight points in 67 seconds, to go ahead by five, 24-19, with 6:15 left in the frame. Tennessee answered soon thereafter by holding the home team without a point for three-plus minutes yet again, a stretch during which it tallied eight consecutive points in 2:03 to grab a 30-26 advantage with 1:48 left before the break.
After the Longhorns beat the shot-clock buzzer with a basket, senior guard senior guard Zakai Zeigler hit a 3-pointer to make it an 11-2 surge in 3:14 and put Tennessee up by five, 33-28, with 37 ticks to play in the frame. Texas freshman guard Tre Johnson then drilled a 3-pointer of his own, cutting the margin to two, 33-31, at the intermission.
The Volunteers went 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) from deep in the opening 20 minutes, with one of the misses coming at the horn, while the Longhorns tallied a 4-of-13 (30.8 percent) clip. The visitors, though, committed 10 turnovers and forced only four.
Following back-and-forth action early in the second half, Texas matched its largest lead of the evening by going in front, 54-49, with 9:22 remaining. The Longhorns then missed eight field goals in a row and Tennessee leveled the score at 56 on a putback dunk by fifth-year guard Darlinstone Dubar with 6:24 to go.
Shortly thereafter, Dubar drilled a corner 3-pointer with 3:57 on the timer to put the Volunteers up by one, 61-60. Junior forward Felix Okpara slammed home a second-chance dunk on the next possession, 48 seconds later, to make it 63-60. Senior guard Jordan Gainey then knocked down a corner 3-pointer 28 seconds after that to push the margin to six, 66-60, with 2:41 left, concluding an 8-0 surge in 78 seconds.
Texas sliced the deficit down to three, 66-63, with 1:30 to play, but Zeigler responded with a buzzer-beating layup and then, after a defensive stop, a pair of free throws to give the Volunteers a game-high seven-point lead, 70-63, with 32.2 seconds remaining.
The Longhorns twice closed the deficit to five, but Tennessee went 6-of-8 at the line in the final 33 seconds and maintained a seven-point lead in the closing moments. Texas hit a 3-pointer with 5.4 seconds left to cut it to four and did not foul after the Volunteers inbounded, sealing the decision.
Zeigler scored 13 of his 16 points in the final 15 minutes, including six in the last minute. The Long Islabd, N.Y., native went 6-of-7 at the stripe and had twice as many assists as any other player on either side.
Dubar finished one point shy of his season high with 12, nine of which came in the last 14 minutes, and he added a season-best six rebounds. He shot 3-of-5 from 3-point range, his first time making multiple long-range shots as a Volunteer, and played a season-high 17 minutes, finishing with a game-best plus-eight margin.
Gainey logged 12 points, while fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier added 10 in the victory. Okpara totaled seven points to go along with game highs in rebounds (nine) and blocks (three), the latter of which all came in the last 10 minutes.
Johnson paced all scorers with 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting for the Longhorns. He started with 24 points on 10-of-13 through 29 minutes, at which point the rest of the team had 26 points on 10-of-30 shooting. Tennessee held him to a 1-of-4 mark the rest of the way to turn a then-four-point deficit into a four-point win.
Graduate student guard Tramon Mark posted 17 points for Texas, while junior guard Jordan Pope chipped in 10.
Tennessee went 10-of-23 (43.5 percent) from 3-point range, including 8-of-14 in the first 27 minutes before missing six straight and then hitting two of its last three in the last four minutes.
At the other end, the Volunteers held limited Texas to a 7-of-25 (28.0 percent) long-range ledger, including a 3-of-17 mark by everyone other than Johnson.
The victors recorded a 28-9 margin in bench points, a 28-16 cushion in paint points and a 17-10 tally in second-chance points to counteract the Longhorns’ 21-8 mark in points off turnovers.
With Tennessee’s largest lead seven and Texas’ just five, the entire game was played within a 12-point window. It marked just the eighth time this season, per KenPom, a Power Five conference game was played within a dozen points from start to finish.
After back-to-back road games, the Volunteers now host Georgia, with tip-off slared for Wednesday at 8 p.m., live on SEC Network from Food City Center.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.
TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS POSTGAME NOTES
• Saturday marked the 18th game in program history with Tennessee ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll, as it improved to 15-3, including 14-2 in head coach Rick Barnes‘ tenure.
• Tennessee remained undefeated against unranked foes, moving to 14-0, while ranked first in the AP Poll.
• The Volunteers also improved to 29-5 all-time while ranked top-three in the AP Poll, including 25-3 under Barnes.
• Tennessee moved to 6-4 all-time against Texas, including 5-2 in the last seven matchups, with this the fourth consecutive year the teams have met—each at a different venue—and their first conference clash.
• Barnes, who served as Texas’ head coach for 17 years, upped his record to 5-3 in Tennessee/Texas matchups, as he is now 3-1 with the Volunteers after going 2-2 with the Longhorns.
• Saturday marked the first time Barnes has defeated Texas as a visitor, as he previously did so at home (Jan. 28, 2023) and at a neutral site (March 23, 2024.)
• Barnes, one of seven coaches—four active—to lead two Division I schools to an AP No. 1 ranking is now 16-4 atop the poll in his career, as he went 2-2 in January 2010 while leading the Longhorns.
• In the second half alone, Tennessee amassed a 13-4 margin in second-chance points behind a 13-7 lead on the offensive glass.
• Johnson’s 26 points marked the most by an opponent on his home floor versus the Volunteers since Tyrece Radford of Texas A&M posted 27 on Feb. 10, 2024.
• This is the sixth time in the last seven years, with 2021-22 the lone exception, Tennessee has won at least two of its first three SEC games.
• The Volunteers have held a halftime advantage in 14 of their 16 outings this season, including a margin of seven-plus points 11 times, double digits nine times, 12-plus seven times, 14-plus six times and 23-plus thrice.
• Tennessee has conceded 35 or fewer first-half points in 15 of its 16 outings thus far, including 29 or fewer on nine occasions and 21 or fewer four times.
• Per KenPom, Saturday’s contest marked the first one in SEC play in 2024-25 that was played within a 12-point window.
• Okpara recorded a career-high-tying two assists, his first time hitting that mark at Tennessee and his seventh time doing so as a collegian.
• Dubar’s 12 points trailed only the 13 he scored Dec. 17, 2024, against Western Carolina, with this his second time reaching double figures as a Volunteer.
• Gainey has scored at least 12 points in seven of the first 16 games this season after doing so seven times total in 36 outings in 2023-24.
• Lanier has recorded double-digit points in 15 of his first 16 games as a Volunteer, including each of the last 12, dating to Nov. 21, 2024, against Virginia in Nassau, Bahamas.
