KNOXVILLE — The easiest Southeastern Conference game on Tennessee’s basketball schedule was hardly that.
LSU entered the Food City Center on Saturday night tied for last in the SEC standings and without its two leading scorers, yet the Tigers led the Volunteers with 12 minutes to play before eventually succumbing 73-63. Ja’Kobi Gillespie broke a 50-50 deadlock with a 3-pointer at the 11:14 mark, and another Gillespie 3-pointer with 9:28 to play made it 58-50.
The Tigers, who arrived as 14.5-point underdogs and got hammered by Arkansas 91-62 last Tuesday in Baton Rouge, never got within a single possession again.
“I think they had played seven or eight possessions of zone all year coming into tonight, and they played a lot because we got them in foul trouble early,” coach Rick Barnes said after picking up his 250th win with the Vols. “They made the adjustment to zone, and it slowed us down and took us out of our rhythm.
“When you go through what LSU has gone through it’s tough, but they had some guys step up tonight.”