COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Tennessee men's basketball team needed a late run but was able to overcome Colgate and hot-shooting Jordan Burns to win 77-70 in an NCAA tournament South Region opening-round game Friday at Nationwide Arena.
The second-seeded Volunteers (30-5) will face 10th-seeded Iowa (23-11) on Sunday at 12:10 p.m. The Hawkeyes won 79-72 against seventh-seeded Cincinnati (28-7) on Friday.
Admiral Schofield led the Vols with 19 points, including a pair of back-breaking 3-pointers in the final minutes after the 15th-seeded Raiders (24-11) had closed the gap to 67-64. Jordan Bone added 16 points and three assists, Jordan Bowden had 14 points, Lamonte Turner had 13 points and a team-high six assists and Grant Williams had nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Burns led the Raiders with 32 points, 20 of which came in the second half, when he was 8-for-13 from the field and 4-for-8 from 3-point range. Colgate - which made nine 3s in the second half and 15 in the game - played the second half without Rapolas Ivanauskas, who was diagnosed with pink eye. Ivanauskas is the Raiders' leading scorer for the season.
Here's the good, the bad and the verdict for Tennessee from Friday's win:
THE GOOD
The Vols showed the toughness of a battle-tested team, responding to every Colgate run like a veteran group. When the Raiders took a 52-50 lead in the second half, Tennessee went on an 8-2 run. The Vols also put together a 10-3 spurt late in the game after Colgate cut their lead to three. It wasn't an ideal performance, but March is about winning - and that's what the Vols did.
THE BAD
The Vols played solid defense against the Raiders' 3-point shooters at times, but there were also a number of moments when Tennessee got lost and made mistakes that gave Colgate open looks. When a team hits 15 3s, it's not luck, but if there's something for the Vols to be concerned about, it's that it has happened to them in consecutive games. Auburn made 15 3s in the Southeastern Conference tournament championship game on Sunday. The Vols also struggled on offense Friday, going stagnant at times as Colgate changed from a 3-2 zone to a trapping defense to a basic man-to-man. It's not that the Vols' 26 attempts from 3-point range were too many; it's that some of those were taken at the expense of looking for quality shots.
THE VERDICT
The Vols survived, which is all that ultimately matters in the NCAA tournament. It wasn't pretty, though. There are enough problems on both ends of the floor that Tennessee shouldn't be pleased with the performance, even if it resulted in a win. Coach Rick Barnes, his staff and the players now turn their attention to cleaning things up before facing Iowa.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.