The No. 7 Tennessee Volunteers made their first seven shots Wednesday night at Missouri and then made quite the statement with a 73-53 thrashing of the No. 12 Tigers in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
Tennessee led by double digits for the game’s final 35 minutes and three seconds.
Santiago Vescovi’s 3-pointer 18 seconds into the contest gave Tennessee a 3-0 lead in its wire-to-wire victory, and Vescovi’s second 3-pointer at the 12:12 mark of the first half extended the advantage to 21-4. The Vols improved to 7-0 with the amazingly easy triumph, which also marked Tennessee’s first game this season away from Thompson-Boling Arena.
Missouri, which was hosting a matchup of ranked foes for the first time since Feb. 9, 2013, dropped to 6-1.
Vescovi led four Vols in double figures with 15 points, which included a 3-of-4 showing from 3-point range. Yves Pons and Jaden Springer each scored 13 for the winners, while John Fulkerson added 11.
Pons was again a defensive menace, collecting four blocked shots, with the third marking the 100th of his career. The Vols forced the Tigers into 21 turnovers.
“I thought Yves Pons was terrific,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “He is becoming the player that we know he is and that we want him to be. When he plays like that above the rim, cleaning up things and making fix-it plays, it’s really good.”
When asked about his versatile performance, Pons said: “This is what I do. I play hard on defense. I try to block shots, and I try to fix plays. This is part of my game, so I try to just stay locked in and do my best.”
Tennessee will look to remain undefeated Saturday night at 6, when the Vols host Alabama on ESPN2.