KNOXVILLE – Almost everything was perfect about Lamonte Turner’s return to action for the Tennessee basketball Volunteers, including an uplifting sold-out crowd and his body – specifically his shoulder – feeling as good as it has since offseason surgery.
He even hit his first shot Saturday, a 3-pointer from the right wing. Only it didn’t count because a foul had been called. His first official attempt was an air ball from the left wing.
“I’ve actually had hiccups for three days straight, and I hiccuped before I shot the ball,” Turner joked postgame. “When I air-balled it, I wasn’t even surprised about it.”
Of course, it didn’t matter. Because he was back. And he felt good, especially returning to a standing ovation when he entered the game with 15:55 to play in the first half. Coach Rick Barnes said early in the week that it was unlikely the 6-foot-2 guard would play, but Turner said he started to feel good Friday and was ready to give it a go.
“I didn’t know they were going to do that,” Turner said of the fans’ reaction. “I knew a lot of people were wondering when I was going to play, but I didn’t know it was going to be like that. It felt great to be back out there.”
It appeared the team fed off that as well.
In a season full of impressive performances, Saturday’s was perhaps the most, as the Vols controlled the game from start to finish while routing Georgia 96-50 in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams. The third-ranked Vols (12-1) will play Tuesday at Missouri and Saturday at Florida before hosting Arkansas on Jan. 15.
The 46-point win was one point shy of Tennessee’s largest margin of victory in an SEC game. The Vols beat Ole Miss by 47 points in 1966.
Turner finished with six points and a pair of assists in 15 minutes and looked a lot more comfortable than he did the first time he returned earlier in the season. He missed all three of his 3-point attempts but scored twice on hard attacks on the basket.
“Before the game I heard he was going to play, and I went straight to him and told him that I was proud of him and happy for him, because I know that it’s been rough for him being out there but not being able to play,” Tennessee guard Jordan Bowden said. “So I felt for him for that, and I was really happy for him today.”
Bowden, who had his own struggle with 10 consecutive missed shots entering Saturday’s game and missed his first two against the Bulldogs (8-5), finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the floor. Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams had 18 points each, while Kyle Alexander had a double-double with 12 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
Jordan Bone chipped in 11 points and five assists, matching Williams for team honors in the latter.
The Vols shot 53 percent from the field against Georgia – their fifth consecutive game shooting better than 50 percent, seventh in the past eight games and 10th this season. Meanwhile, the Bulldogs shot 32 percent, their worst rate of the season. They made only one 3-pointer in 20 attempts and shot only 56 percent from the free-throw line.
“We had a week off,” Barnes said while explaining the defensive performance. “Monday and Tuesday, we went back to a mini-camp sort of thing. We had Wednesday off, we came back in Thursday and yesterday you could really tell the guys wanted to play. You could feel it.
“Today I thought Kyle Alexander may have been as good as he’s been. He came out and really had a presence early on in the defensive end, rebounding the ball. We know we’re going to try to go inside, and obviously the foul situation changed a little bit of the game, but defensively we were able to get stops and start getting into transition. With the foul trouble they got in, they were having to work through that, which is tough for anybody. We went in and we were trying to put pressure on the rim and see if we could get to the foul line.”
Tennessee took control with a 15-2 run that opened what had been a two-point lead against the Bulldogs. The margin was 53-24 at the break, with Williams having scored 15 points and Schofield and Bowden each having netted 13.
The Vols had 48 points in the paint, 25 points off 14 Georgia turnovers, 14 second-chance points and 14 fast-break points.
Georgia was led by Derek Ogbeide’s 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting, but he had two fouls in the first minute. Rayshaun Hammonds and Nicolas Claxton – combining for 28.3 points and 17.1 rebounds per game for the season – finished with a combined six points, six rebounds and eight fouls, with Claxton picking up all four of his fouls in the first half.
“We have been getting better with that, but I am not sure,” Georgia coach Tom Crean said when asked if he was surprised by the result. “I do not know them well enough. We have not even been together for 10 months yet.
“It is uncharacteristic for us to be that uncompetitive. Now, we do have to play harder for longer. For us, the biggest thing was getting pressure on the pass. They throw a tremendous amount of bounce passes in the post. We did not challenge that at all.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.