KNOXVILLE — The Tennessee Volunteers finally had a top-20 showdown at home Saturday afternoon.
They made the most of it.
Jahmai Mashack’s short jumper in the lane with 8:29 remaining gave No. 17 Tennessee its first double-digit advantage and turned what had been a back-and-forth contest with No. 20 Illinois into an 86-79 victory by the Vols before an energetic audience of 21,678 inside the Food City Center. Mashack’s basket provided the Vols a 65-55 lead, and a Jonas Aidoo layup off an assist from Josiah-Jordan James extended it to 69-57 and forced the Fighting Illini to call a timeout with 6:59 to play.
Illinois briefly inched within five in the game’s final minute as Tennessee won a ranked matchup for the first time this season after losing to Purdue and Kansas at the Maui Invitational and at North Carolina in the ACC/SEC Challenge. Saturday also marked the 25th consecutive nonconference home win for the Vols, with that victim list including Arizona, Kansas, Texas and now Illinois.
“This was an important win for us,” Mashack said. “I think we have a lot of potential with this team in how versatile we are and with how many lineups we can put out there. It separates us from a lot of teams who really have to stick with one lineup in order to be successful.