The Tennessee Volunteers committed too many turnovers and too many fouls Friday night against Iowa State, and that didn’t factor into the outcome one bit.
Senior forward Felix Okpara and junior forward Jaylen Carey led a relentless rebounding effort as the sixth-seeded Vols pounded second-seeded Iowa State 76-62 in an NCAA tournament Midwest Regional semifinal inside Chicago’s United Center. Tennessee (25-11) advanced to the Elite Eight round for a third consecutive season and will face top-seeded Michigan (34-3) on Sunday afternoon at 2:15 Eastern with a chance at the first Final Four appearance in program history.
The Wolverines advanced earlier Friday evening with a 90-77 downing of fourth-seeded Alabama.
“I’m certainly proud of our basketball team,” Tennessee 11th-year coach Rick Barnes said afterward in a press conference. “We’ve worked really hard for this. We knew we would have to have a great effort defensively, and everybody had a hand in us winning this game.”
One year after the Southeastern Conference comprised half of the Elite Eight, when Auburn and Florida advanced to the Final Four and the Gators won the national championship, Tennessee is the SEC’s last remaining team.
Before this three-year run, the Vols had made only one Elite Eight trip.
“That speaks a lot about Coach Barnes and the culture he’s built here,” Tennessee senior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie said. “I’m glad we were able to keep it up and are still playing.”
It was no secret how the Vols moved on, as they outrebounded the Cyclones (29-8) by a whopping 43-22 margin. The difference was 36-13 with less than eight minutes to play, and Tennessee at that point had more offensive rebounds at 14 than Iowa State had total rebounds.
Okpara finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Carey had 11 points and 10 boards to accompany Nate Ament’s 18 points and Gillespie’s 16. Tennessee was hoping to have no more than 10 turnovers but committed 17, and Ament and Ethan Burg each finished with four fouls.
“In the Virginia game, we kind of got our butts kicked a little bit on the glass,” Carey said of the Vols’ second-round win against the third-seeded Cavaliers last Sunday in Philadelphia. “We wanted to get back to what we do. It’s something we’ve emphasized all season — wanting to be the best on the offensive glass. We wanted to prove that tonight.”
Carey’s layup and free throw with 11:47 remaining gave the Vols, who were four-point underdogs, their largest lead at 57-43. Blake Buchanan’s layup with 4:30 to play pulled the Cyclones within 63-55, but Gillespie answered 20 seconds later with a 3-pointer to push the lead back to 11.
Iowa State reached Friday’s Sweet 16 showdown with an 82-63 thumping of Kentucky that transpired without senior forward Justin Jefferson due to a sprained left ankle. The Cyclones were hoping to have their 6-foot-9, 240-pound standout back, but his absence was obvious.
“This time of year is always tough when they lose a key guy like they did,” Barnes said. “Unfortunately it’s part of the tournament.”
Tennessee grabbed a 34-33 halftime advantage after holding the lead for 8:32 of the first 20 minutes compared to 8:27 by Iowa State.
Okpara had 10 points and eight rebounds in the first half, as the Vols held a commanding 22-10 lead in rebounds to help combat their 10 turnovers. Tennessee shot 2-of-11 from 3-point range before halftime, with Ament giving the Vols an 11-10 lead and Amari Evans a 22-19 edge.
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Tennessee went on a 10-4 run within the first three minutes of the second half that was highlighted by an Ament 3-pointer, a Gillespie driving layup and a Bishop Boswell 3-pointer that made it 44-37. Gillespie missed his first six 3-point attempts but connected on his seventh to provide Tennessee its first double-digit lead at 52-41 with 13:51 to play.
Carey’s putback less than a minute later made it 54-41 and resulted in a Cyclones timeout.
“I just think we want this,” Ament said on the TBS broadcast. “We want this so bad. It’s never been done in Tennessee history, and we’re going to fight our tails off.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.