CHARLOTTE, N.C. — That Tennessee demolished Saint Peter’s 83-49 late Thursday night in the opening round of the NCAA tournament did not come as a surprise.
That the Volunteers had to salvage a disastrous day for the Southeastern Conference came as quite the shock.
The Vols were 21.5-point favorites at the Spectrum Center and acted the part, taking a 10-point lead within the first eight minutes and increasing it to 20 at 27-7 on a Dalton Knecht 3-pointer with 8:52 before halftime. Knecht wound up pacing the Vols (25-8) with 23 points and was 4-of-8 from 3-point range, while Jonas Aidoo added 15 and was 5-of-6 from the floor.
Zakai Zeigler was effective from a well-rounded standpoint again, amassing 11 points and 10 assists.
“We were definitely watching the games,” Knecht said. “There are a lot of great teams in March, and it just shows that March is madness. You don’t know what’s going to happen, and every team here is a great team — all 68 who got in.”
Tennessee was the only SEC team to prevail Thursday, as Kentucky, Mississippi State and South Carolina all fell to lower-seeded teams. Kentucky’s stunning 80-76 loss to Oakland, the No. 14 seed in the South Region, was ending as Tennessee’s game was tipping off, with the result on the videoboard drawing huge cheers from those dressed in orange.
“I want to see the league do well in the tournament,” Vols fifth-year senior forward Josiah-Jordan James said. “It was unfortunate to see that, but I don’t think this tournament is all about who’s the better team. It’s just about being better for 40 minutes.
“My heart is broken, because I know a lot of guys on all the teams in our league that lost today. I wish them the best of luck when we’re not playing them. I’ve been here five years. I’ve created a lot of bonds outside of basketball.”
The Vols, who are seeded second in the Midwest Region, set up a Saturday date with Texas. The seventh-seeded Longhorns (21-12) advanced by winning Thursday night’s earlier contest 56-44 over 10th-seeded Colorado State.
This will mark the third consecutive season in which the two UTs have met, with the previous two matchups occurring in the now defunct Big 12/SEC Challenge. Texas defeated Tennessee 52-51 in Austin in 2022, with the Vols returning the favor in Knoxville last year with an 82-71 triumph.
A Knecht 3-pointer within the first 20 seconds put Tennessee up 3-0 against 15th-seeded Saint Peter’s (19-14), and a pair of Aidoo dunks extended the early advantage for the Vols to 10-2. A Zeigler 3-pointer at the 12:48 mark of the first half made it 15-5, and it was a double-digit rout the rest of the way.
The victory ended a short skid for Tennessee, which lost its regular-season finale to Kentucky and fell to Mississippi State in the SEC tournament quarterfinals last week.
“We just executed our game plan,” Knecht said. “We didn’t get what we wanted done in Nashville, and we knew it’s win or go home now. We were ready to go showcase what we could go do, and we went out and played confident. We were just super aggressive and physical from the jump.”
Tennessee cruised to a 46-20 halftime lead, shooting 64.0% during the first 20 minutes while holding the Peacocks to a 23.3% clip. Aidoo and Knecht had 13 points apiece at the break.
Knecht’s three-point play less than two minutes into the second half increased Tennessee’s advantage to 30 at 52-22.
“We got one game under our belt, and we’re really happy,” Knecht said. “At the same time, we’re here to win it all. We’re just going to take it one game at a time and stay hungry to keep competing.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.