Scoreless stretch dooms Vols against Tide

Alabama forward Jimmie Taylor (10) and forward Michael Kessens (3), from left, defend as Tennessee guard Josh Richardson (1), center, shoots a jumper during their game at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015. Tennessee lost 56-38.
Alabama forward Jimmie Taylor (10) and forward Michael Kessens (3), from left, defend as Tennessee guard Josh Richardson (1), center, shoots a jumper during their game at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2015. Tennessee lost 56-38.

KNOXVILLE -- When Armani Moore finally put the ball in the basket, what was left of Tennessee's largest crowd of the basketball season let out a sarcastic cheer of approval.

It was a merciless response to the merciful ending of a long, brutal scoreless drought and a 56-38 Southeastern Conference loss for the Volunteers.

RECORD LOWS

Tennessee's 38 points against Alabama on Saturday were the fewest by the Vols at Thompson-Boling Arena, which opened for the 1987-88 season, and the third fewest in any game since college basketball instituted a shot clock beginning in the 1985-86 season. The program low for points in the shot-clock era came when Tennessee lost 43-35 at Auburn in January 1997. The Vols scored 36 and 38 points in back-to-back games at Georgetown and Virginia during the 2012-13 season. The Vols' previous scoring low of 46 points at Thompson-Boling was set twice during the 1994-95 season, Tennessee's first under Kevin O'Neill. Memphis won 50-46 in mid-December, and Alabama won 69-46 a little more than a month later.

Alabama outscored the hosts 21-2 to end the game as Tennessee went without a single point for more than 13 minutes Saturday afternoon in the lone meeting of the season between the two teams.

"Nights like that happen to everybody," Vols guard Josh Richardson said dejectedly after scoring 17 of his team's points.

Tennessee (9-5, 1-1) never had scored so few points at Thompson-Boling Arena, which often was boisterous Saturday afternoon with a full student section and a season-high attendance of 16,695.

Richardson single-handedly helped the Vols erase their 29-24 halftime deficit by scoring his team's first eight points of the second half, and Derek Reese's free throws with 13:39 left gave them a 36-35 lead.

The Vols did not score again until Moore made a meaningless layup with 37 seconds left.

"A lot of times we took a lot of good looks, but they weren't great looks," Moore said. "I feel like if we come out and be aggressive and make a lot of extra passes and can get into the lane and finish a lot better, then maybe we can win the ballgame."

Tennessee made three of its first five shots in the second half but hit just two of its final 19 shots.

"We have such a young, inexperienced team that a lot these situations we go through are the first time," first-year Vols coach Donnie Tyndall said. "It's kind of the first time at home that we went without shooting the ball real well and went for that long a period of time of not scoring. You could see guys drop their heads a little bit.

"The last two or three media timeouts, all I did was encourage them and try to pump them up to stay aggressive: 'We're going to make a few of these; this is our time.' Unfortunately, it never happened. It'll be a learning experience."

Alabama (12-3, 2-0) snapped a 16-game road losing streak in handing Tennessee its first home loss in 10 games dating back to Florida's 67-58 win last February.

photo Tennessee's Armani Moore (4) shoots against Alabama during his game against Alabama,on Jan. 10, 2015, in Knoxville.

The Crimson Tide shot just 35 percent in the second half, but that was more than enough as the Vols struggled to find good looks against Alabama's zone and missed the ones they did.

"I didn't know that until the game was over," Tide coach Anthony Grant said of Tennessee's drought. "We were just thinking about getting stops and rebounds, stops and rebounds. I thought it was a great effort by our guys."

Rodney Cooper scored 17 points for Alabama, and Tulane transfer Ricky Tarrant added 14.

Richardson and Moore combined to make 10 of their 20 shots, but their teammates shot just 4-of-25 from the field.

The Vols were able to overcome a scoring drought that lasted more than nine minutes in their SEC-opening win Wednesday night, but such stretches will be nearly impossible to overcome against most of the league.

"The last 12 minutes offensively was what we've seen at times throughout the year where it gets ugly, it gets stagnant," Tyndall said. "We don't have a guy to just throw the ball to the post and loosen some things up, so everything has to be manufactured off the dribble-drive. They went zone, and we had a couple of good looks and we missed them."

photo Tennessee guard Josh Richardson (1) grapples for the ball against Alabama forward Shannon Hale and guard Levi Randolph, top, during the first half of the Crimson Tide's 56-38 win Saturday.

No longer does Tennessee have the luxury of throwing the ball to Jarnell Stokes on the block and letting him go to work, or letting Jordan McRae drive and create a shot or get to the free-throw line.

Despite its limitations offensively, Tennessee's previous season low for points was 59 against Marquette in November.

"A lot of times (our offense) has to come from transition," Richardson said. "because we don't have a team where we can just go throw it to somebody and go watch them score, in the half-court at least. We've got to use our speed advantage against teams. We were getting our looks; we've just got to knock them down next game."

After averaging 14-plus assists per game during its five-game win streak, Tennessee had just seven Saturday, and the issues on offense kept the Vols from affecting the game with their full-court press.

"I had a rough night coaching, our guys had a rough night playing and that's part of it," Tyndall said.

"We've got to bounce back."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

Upcoming Events