4-seed Vols display grit to defeat 13-seed Louisiana

ORLANDO – Fourth seed Tennessee fended off the last rally by No. 13 seed Louisiana and in the NCAA Tournament round of 32 after securing a 58-55 win on Saturday at the Amway Center.

Graduate Tyreke Key, playing in his first NCAA Tournament game, led the Vols with 12 points in 31 minutes—tied for the most minutes played since December. Jahmai Mashack was the only Vol in double figures, scoring 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, dishing three assists and grabbing two steals.

Uros Plavsic, starting for the first time since January 17, scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting.

After closing the first half on an 11-0 run and then outscoring Louisiana 13-6 in the opening 6:06 of the second half, Tennessee extended its lead to as many as 18 points.

The Vols held 18-point leads on three separate occasions in a span of two and eight minutes before Louisiana’s 13-0 run cut Tennessee’s lead to just five points on Kobe Julien’s 3-pointer with 7:29 remaining, 48 -43.

Out of the timeout, Tennessee responded with a 6-2 spurt—with four points coming from Mashack—to pull back in front by nine points by the four-minute media timeout.

With just over a minute left and Tennessee leading by eight, Louisiana staged a late comeback effort—scoring five straight points and cutting Tennessee’s lead to 56-53 with 23 seconds to play.

Josiah-Jordan James and Julian Phillips each went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line in the final 20 seconds to secure the win for the Vols.

In the first half, Tennessee turned the ball over 12 times, but closed the period on an 11-0 run and took a 30-19 lead at halftime. Despite 12 turnovers of their own, Tennessee forced eight Louisiana turnovers and limited the Ragin’ Cajuns to just 30 percent shooting from the field during the first 20 minutes.

The Vols led by eight points in the opening 10 minutes of the game at 19-11 before Louisiana scored eight straight to tie the game up at 19 with 4:43 to go in the first half.

With the score knotted up at 19, Tennessee then rattled off an 11-0 run over the final 4:06 of the half capped by Plavsic’s bucket just before the buzzer. Plavsic had a team-high seven points in the first half on 3-of-3 shooting.

Of Louisiana’s 19 first-half points, 12 came from Jordan Brown—who was 5-for-8 from the field in the opening period. No other Ragin’ Cajun scored more than one goal in the first half.

TENNESSEE’S CLASSIC UNIFORMS MAKE MORE APPEARANCES: For the fifth time this season, the Vols donned the “Tennessee Classic” uniforms and improved to 5-0 while doing so. The Big Orange also wore a Tennessee Classic uniform with wins over No. 10 Texas, No. 1 Alabama, Arkansas and in the SEC Tournament against Ole Miss.

UP NEXT

Tennessee advances to Saturday’s NCAA Tournament round of 32 against No. 5 seed Duke. Tip off is set for 2:40 pm ET on CBS.