KNOXVILLE – Lamonte Turner had a vision for what his final home game as a college basketball player would be like.
“A guy like me, I’m like, ‘I’m going to score 50,'” the Tennessee fifth-year senior said with a laugh Saturday afternoon, some 2 1/2 months after his season ended due to surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome.
Against Auburn on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena, the Volunteers might have needed such a performance. They definitely needed him.
Maybe not even for the 50 points, although it certainly would have helped, but for his on-ball defense on the perimeter. That might be what Tennessee has missed the most about the 6-foot-2, 187-pound guard, and the 85-63 loss to the 17th-ranked Tigers in the regular-season finale for both teams was a prime example.
Auburn (25-6, 12-6 Southeastern Conference) made 14 3-pointers, which sounds like the Vols (17-14, 9-9) just forgot to guard at the arc. But it was penetration into gaps that created those open looks for the Tigers, who shot 50% from the field and had 32 attempts from long range as they completed a sweep of the regular-season series.