COLUMBUS, Ohio - The NCAA men's basketball tournament isn't about style points. It's about wins.
So while 15th-seeded Colgate earned most of the Nationwide Arena crowd of 19,641's approval Friday afternoon in a South Region matchup, it's second-seeded Tennessee that's advancing.
It wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing first-round victory. The Volunteers survived the Raiders' 3-point barrage with some solid play down the stretch, using a late 10-3 run to pull away for a 77-70 victory and advance to Sunday's second-round game against 10th-seeded Iowa (23-11), which is set for 12:10 p.m. The Hawkeyes won 79-72 against Cincinnati (28-7) in Friday afternoon's first game in Columbus.
Fans of teams in the first game hung around for the second, and as Colgate (24-11) started to get hot in the second half, sinking nine of its 15 made 3s for the game, the crowd started to turn against Tennessee (30-5), rooting for the upset.
But Vols senior Admiral Schofield knocked down a pair of back-breaking 3s on consecutive possessions to stretch a three-point lead to 73-64. Jordan Bone and Schofield then made two free throws each, and the Vols were able to move on.
"I feel like this team was prepared to come into this game," said Bone, who finished with 16 points. "I feel like we understood going into the game that it was going to be tough, understanding that especially this time of the year is very important, it's very critical - and towards the end when we understood that it was going to be a tight game.
"We just wanted to put them in long possessions, make them guard a little longer and just execute what we do. We know we've been in tougher positions earlier this year. So the key thing is just never get rattled, understand how hard we worked to get to this point, so there's no reason to get rattled, but more importantly just executing our game plan."
Schofield finished with a team-high 19 points, including a trio of 3s in the final 4:01. Bowden had 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting, while Lamonte Turner had 13 points and six assists with no turnovers.
Grant Williams, double-teamed most of the game, was limited to nine points on 4-for-6 shooting but led the team with seven rebounds and had three assists.
Jordan Burns led Colgate with 32 points, 20 coming in the second half. He was 8-for-13 from 3-point range. Will Rayman and Tucker Richardson had 10 points apiece for the Raiders, who played the second half without Rapolas Ivanauskas, who was affected by pinkeye and didn't play.
In the absence of the 6-foot-10 Ivanauskas - the Raiders' primary inside threat and leading scorer this season - Colgate became the second consecutive team to hit 15 3s against the Vols.
Only unlike Auburn in the Southeastern Conference tournament championship game this past Sunday, the Vols won this time. They led 42-30 at the break, with 26 points coming in the paint and 10 points coming off eight Colgate turnovers, but the Raiders rallied with Burns leading a 3-point onslaught, taking a 52-50 lead on a 3 by Richardson with 11:35 to play. Tennessee responded with an 8-1 run to assume control, then put the game away late.
"They're a well-coached, well-coached team," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "I thought they played with great composure, great poise, and they fought. And again, that's what makes this tournament what it is. And we were fortunate to get it done, but our guys got it done.
"And that's the bottom line."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.