LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Coach Rick Barnes, senior Admiral Schofield and junior Grant Williams emerged first, eyes red with tears and heads down.
A step into the Tennessee men’s basketball team’s locker room unveiled an even more somber scene. Point guard Jordan Bone never looked up when asked questions, his head hanging, his tone soft. Kyle Alexander had a towel over his head. Jordan Bowden and Lamonte Turner kept their eyes turned toward the floor.
Others sat in their lockers, some stunned, some broken.
The dream season for the Volunteers came to a crashing end Thursday night in the Sweet 16 as they rallied from down 18 points in the second half to force overtime, only to fall 99-94 to Purdue at the KFC Yum! Center.
The third-seeded Boilermakers (26-9) advance to the Elite Eight, where they will face the winner of Thursday’s late South Region semifinal between top-seeded Virginia (31-3) and 12th-seeded Oregon (25-12).
The second-seeded Vols (31-6) lose Alexander and Schofield plus walk-on players Lucas Campbell and Brad Woodson. Their group went 88-50 in its four years at Tennessee, including 57-15 over the final two seasons.
“We had a chance to win it in overtime, but they hit shots and it didn’t go our way,” Bowden said. “I just wanted to get this win for Kyle, AD (Schofield) and them. I’d do anything to get that back, but we can’t. We just have to go on. Respect for Purdue and what they did.
“We just wanted to win for them.”
The Vols were led by Schofield and Williams, with each scoring 21 points. Schofield led the team with nine rebounds in 42 minutes, while Williams had seven rebounds and a pair of blocks before fouling out in overtime. Bowden went 4-for-6 from 3-point range, finished with 16 points and kept the Vols somewhat competitive in the first half, scoring 10 points before the break. Turner scored 15 points and Bone had 10.
Kyle Alexander had nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks before fouling out, also in overtime.
Carsen Edwards had 29 points to lead the Boilermakers. Ryan Cline had 27, with 22 coming in a second half in which he hit six of seven 3-point attempts, keeping Purdue in the game once the Vols had fought their way back into it.
Purdue led 40-28 at halftime after shooting 55 percent from the field and making seven 3-pointers on 16 attempts. Edwards had 15 of those points, making four 3-pointers despite being heavily contested by Turner on nearly every attempt.
The Vols struggled to get into a rhythm offensively and were unable to make stops in the first half. That changed in the second half, when they used a 16-2 run to tie the game and took a 73-70 lead on a Schofield 3-pointer with four minutes to play.
“The game was never really out of hand,” said Turner, who dealt with cramps in both calves in overtime. “Being down 12 at the half is nothing. We knew once we started playing our game, we’ll be fine because it’ll lead to more defensive stops.
“We were giving them momentum by letting them stop us.”
There were a pair of ties and two lead changes down the stretch. Williams gave the Vols an 82-80 lead with eight seconds to play, dunking in a Turner missed layup, but Turner was called for a foul while contesting an Edwards 3-point attempt with 1.7 seconds to play.
Edwards hit two of the three free throws he was awarded, forcing overtime.
The Boilermakers never trailed in the five-minute extra period, holding the Vols without a field goal for the first 3:35.
“We’re proud of the effort the way we fought back in the second half,” Barnes said. “The first half, didn’t do much at all on the offensive end. We knew they were going to make shots. They’re an offensive team.
“Second half, we found some rhythm on the offensive end, started making it more difficult to be scored on. But it was a high-level game, and really I can’t say enough about our guys fighting back. And taking nothing away from Purdue, but we were there. Tough one at the end. We had the lead with one-point something seconds left. Tough foul.
“Lamonte Turner played his heart out. We wouldn’t have been in that situation without him. That’s a tough one for him. I’m really proud of these guys. Admiral has been with us since day one and Kyle Alexander and the two walk-ons (Lucas Campbell and Brad Woodson). Go back four years ago and where we are today, there’s a lot to be proud of, though right now it’s hard to feel any of that because you’re always numb when this happens to you. But again, give Purdue credit.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.