KNOXVILLE – Outside of the Rocky Top Basketball League that takes place over the summer, Kyle Alexander has never had a 20-point game.
So in addition to the fact that the 6-foot-11 Tennessee senior is about to fly home to Canada in a plane with probably not enough leg room, realizing how close he was to that plateau Saturday afternoon will make the trip just a little more excruciating.
But just a little.
Alexander was one of four Volunteers who scored in double figures, and a big run to end the first half and start the second led Tennessee to an 83-64 win over Wake Forest in front of 19,846 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
The third-ranked Vols (10-1) headed into their Christmas break off a good result and on a six-game winning streak. They won’t play again until next Saturday at home against Tennessee Tech, their final game of the calendar year and their final nonconference game before opening Southeastern Conference play Jan. 5 against Georgia.
Wake Forest fell to 6-4.
Alexander, who missed a layup and three of his four free throws, finished with 19 points – his best with the Vols – and grabbed eight rebounds. After the game, teammate Grant Williams yelled “Free throws! Free throws!” at Alexander.
“We have a locker room joke going on that I might not ever score 20 points,” said Alexander, who has only been playing basketball for six years. “I’ve always been a rebounder and a defender; I’ve never had a 20-point game in my life.
“I blew it.”
Williams led the Vols with 22 points and 10 rebounds, and he also had three blocks, two assists and two steals. Junior point guard Jordan Bone continued his high level of play with 18 points and five assists, giving him 42 points and 16 assists (with only three turnovers) in Tennessee’s past two games. Admiral Schofield was slowed some but finished with 12 points and three assists.
The Vols shot 53 percent for the game – 59 percent in the second half – as they topped 50 percent for the eighth time this season.
The game was tight early, but Tennessee broke a 19-all tie with a 23-11 spurt over the final 8:38 of the first half for a 42-30 lead at the break, then outscored the Demon Deacons 14-5 to start the second half as the lead grew to 21. The Vols’ biggest advantage was 27 points.
“I think that Danny Manning has a young team,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of the Wake Forest coach, who is in his fifth season with the program. “They have gotten better and they are long. They played a good schedule, too, and it takes time sometime.”
With SEC play looming, Barnes continues to push his players’ progress.
“You go back, and we made a couple really not smart plays, and we fouled two shooters – got the 3-point shooter, did not give him room to come down, and we got the jump shooter,” Barnes said. “You take away those – and we gave up a couple offensive rebounds where the guy had shot it and, like, he got his own rebound. You take that five, six or seven points and it is different, but we did not and it goes back to where we were so conscious of trying to contest shots and we overdid it. The 3, we did not give room to come down. The foul-line jumper, we fouled.
“Those are the plays that you eliminate, and again at least three offensive rebounds that the shooter got. That is five possessions that makes up and keeps us from getting away earlier.”
The Vols held Wake Forest to 40.7 percent shooting for the game and 21.7 percent (5-for-23) from 3-point range. Chaundee Brown led the Demon Deacons with 19 points on 7-for-16 shooting, while Brandon Childress – son of former Wake Forest star Randolph – had 14 points and five assists but shot just 4-for-11.
The Vols improved to 3-0 against Atlantic Coast Conference competition this season. They beat Georgia Tech 66-53 on Nov. 13 in Knoxville and topped Louisville 92-81 on Nov. 21 at the NIT Season Tip-Off in Brooklyn, New York.
“That is amazing,” Williams said. “We have done a good job of handling our business this year. We have one game that we were down on. We have to keep going. We have a good Tennessee Tech team coming up, and then we start SEC play after that.”
The Vols do have one nonconference game remaining in the regular season even after taking on Tennessee Tech, hosting West Virginia on Jan. 26 in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.
