Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin, left, questions an official in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Xavier in Cincinnati.KNOXVILLE – Tennessee’s basketball team needs the third time to be the charm in Baton Rouge tonight.
After losing their first two road games of the season at Xavier and Wichita State, the Volunteers open SEC play against LSU away from Knoxville, where they’ve struggled for the past couple of seasons.
In both road trips this season, the game was there for Tennessee’s taking well into the second half.
After falling behind by 10, the Vols trailed Xavier’s Musketeers by two with 13 minutes left and by four with eight minutes remaining in a season-opening defeat, and they led the unbeaten Shockers 44-41 with less than 10 minutes on the clock when Wichita State ripped off a 17-5 run to take control.
“The Xavier game, we got off to a slow start and fought back into the game,” Vols coach Cuonzo Martin said Monday. “We gave ourselves a chance to win the game down the stretch. I think more than anything, in that game, playing your first game on the road … I think that was more of us mentally than the actual game itself.