It’s really hard to blame this Tennessee Basketball program for not looking pretty in its trip to Baton Rouge. The Vols had to play a dangerous but .500 team on the road sandwiched between a top 10 road win over the Texas A&M Aggies Saturday and an upcoming top 10 matchup with the Alabama Crimson Tide this Saturday.
That it came on a Tuesday night, three days after a hard-fought win at A&M, only made it tougher.
As a result, UT, ranked No. 5 in both polls, walking away with a 65-59 victory is actually pretty impressive. The lethargy of the LSU crowd, which was horrendous, seemed to infect the Vols early, and they only led 26-23 at halftime. However, they methodically built their lead in the second half to eventually take control.
LSU made it interesting late, as they went on a 7-0 run down 14 right after the two-minute mark and eventually cut the Vols’ lead to five with 12 seconds to go, but it was too little too late. Tennessee was clearly running clock on those offensive possessions to get out of that arena.
Shockingly, Felix Okpara stood out as the offensive weapon in this one, coming away with 15 points, hitting all six shots and all three free throw attempts. His defense was also a huge factor, as it always is, likely making him the player of the game given the fact that he also finished with BLANK blocks and BLANK rebounds.
Zakai Zeigler was only 1-of-5 from three, but he still finished with 17 points and two steals. Chaz Lanier had a sluggish first half but hit two second-half threes to finish 3-of-8 from beyond the arc en route to 14 points. He also had nine rebounds on the night.
Simply put, even in an off-night, were the team as a whole shot 6-of-22 from the outside, they did what they needed to do to get out on top, and in the grind of an SEC schedule, even against a bad team, you can’t take that for granted. Rick Barnes’ team is probably just happy to be returning home now.
As they get set to host Alabama, ranked No. 6 in both polls, on Saturday, Tennessee improves to 23-5 and 10-5 in SEC play. LSU falls to 14-14 and 3-12 in SEC play under third-year head coach Matt McMahon with a trip to the Mississippi State Bulldogs, ranked No. 24 in both polls, set for Saturday.
