Santiago Vescovi provided the points, Jonas Aidoo grabbed the rebounds and Zakai Zeigler made the free throws as No. 7 Tennessee claimed its Southeastern Conference opener Wednesday night with a 63-59 victory at Ole Miss.
The Volunteers and Rebels staged their third consecutive hard-fought matchup, with Tennessee winning last season’s contest 66-60 in overtime inside Thompson-Boling Arena and with Ole Miss prevailing 52-50 two seasons ago in Oxford. Wednesday’s win was Tennessee’s seventh in the past eight series meetings, and it improved this season’s solid start to 11-2.
“It seems like every time we play them it’s a game like this,” Vols coach Rick Barnes in a news conference.
SEC openers have been anything but easy under Barnes, with Tennessee now 4-4 in his eight seasons.
“Starting with a ‘W’ means a lot to us,” Vescovi said. “We can’t overlook any team, because everybody in the SEC has a lot of potential and a lot of talent. Ole Miss played hard tonight, but we just got it done.”