Tennessee’s 13th game of the basketball season wasn’t unlucky, but it may have been the most unimpressive showing of its undefeated starting surge.
The top-ranked Volunteers labored through a 67-52 defeat of Norfolk State on Tuesday afternoon inside the Food City Center. Chaz Lanier led Tennessee with 24 points, going 8-of-18 from the floor and 6-of-16 on 3-point attempts, but the rest of the Vols were a combined 2-of-15 from long range for an 8-of-31 showing.
Tennessee only committed six turnovers, but the Vols were outrebounded 33-31.
“We knew that they were going to play slow and get deep into the clock,” Tennessee 10th-year coach Rick Barnes said on the Vol Network. “They outrebounded us, which shouldn’t happen, but it did. We had so many open shots, and we settled some early. A couple of early shots from our post guys weren’t good shots, but it’s always hard trying to get into a flow of the game knowing that you want to play fast.
“This may have been a lower-possession game than the Virginia game, but this is what an NCAA first-round game feels like when it’s a possession game. When you make mistakes, they become more magnified. This was the kind of game we thought it could be, and we just grinded it out with them.”