Chaz Lanier fouled out.
Zakai Zeigler fouled out.
Jordan Gainey saved the day for Tennessee against Illinois and saved the No. 1 ranking for the Volunteers.
Gainey’s layup as time expired Saturday enabled the Vols to prevail 66-64 over the Fighting Illini before a sellout crowd of 15,544 inside the State Farm Center in Champaign. Tennessee improved to 10-0 for just the fifth time in program history and for the first occasion since the 1999-2000 season.
“Those were two high-level teams going at it in a high-level game,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said afterward on the Vol Network. “We worked through a lot of foul trouble situations, and they had to as well. I’m just really proud of our guys, because we had to put together some lineups we haven’t used a lot out there.
“Jordan Gainey got in early foul trouble and had to leave the game, but he stepped it up to a whole different level.”
Kasparas Jakucionis had the opportunity to put Illinois up with a pair of free throws with 5.7 seconds left after driving the lane and drawing the fifth foul on Zeigler, but he missed the first attempt and made the second to deadlock the game at 64-64. Gainey got the ball in to Igor Milicic, who got it right back to Gainey and watched as the 6-foot-4, 190-pound senior covered the rest of the court and delivered the game-winner.
“As soon as I put it up on the glass, I looked back at the hoop and saw it rattling up there,” Gainey said in a news conference. “It finally went through, and then I saw my teammates coming.”
The son of Tennessee assistant coach Justin Gainey is in his second season with the Vols after beginning his career at USC Upstate.
“We’ve practiced that, and we knew we weren’t going to call timeout and let them get set,” Barnes said. “We wanted to get into it right away. We had two timeouts left, and if I didn’t see what I liked, I could call timeout, but he went with it and made a great finish.”
Said Milicic: “I got the ball and passed it back to JG, and he did the magic.”
Gainey led Tennessee with 23 points, while Lanier chipped in 17 before fouling out with 3:40 remaining. Milicic was just 2-of-13 from the floor in scoring seven points, with Zeigler making 1-of-5 shots and winding up with six.
The Fighting Illini, who fell to 7-3 on the season, had the Vols on the ropes early in the second half when Zeigler picked up his third and fourth fouls and when Jakucionis made a 3-pointer while being fouled by Lanier. Jakucionis would make the free throw to put Illinois up 43-37 with 14:22 left, and he would add another four-point play to make it 50-44 at the 11:18 mark.
Then Gainey got hot, with his 3-pointer with 8:49 remaining tying the game at 52-52 and his 3-pointer with 2:27 left making it 62-62. Milicic attacked a lethargic inbounds pass with 1:32 to play, with his steal and dunk putting the Vols up 64-62.
“We’re going to be in a lot more of these,” Barnes said, “and I’m really proud of the effort.”
Tennessee entered Saturday having trailed for only six minutes and 38 seconds all season, but Illinois scored the game’s first eight points until Lanier’s 3-pointer at the 16:21 mark got the Vols on the board at 8-3. A second 3-pointer by Lanier with 9:50 before halftime pulled Tennessee into a 14-14 tie, and the Vols took their first lead at 18-17 on a pair of Gainey free throws at the 7:01 mark.
A Zeigler layup provided Tennessee its largest first-half lead at 20-17.
The Vols would take a 31-30 lead into intermission after a first 20 minutes that contained 26 combined fouls and 45 combined free-throw attempts. Five Vols players and six Fighting Illini players had two fouls at the break, with Lanier serving as the only player in double-digit scoring with 15.
“I thought the officials did a pretty good job in the first half,” Barnes said. “Both teams were playing at a high level, and those guys were experienced and have been in a lot of big games. They knew coming in it would be this kind of game. Both teams defensively just fought really hard.”
Tennessee returns to action Tuesday night when the Vols host Western Carolina (7 on SEC Network+).
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.