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1 p.m. ET: No. 14 Tennessee Faces Florida, Looks To Stop Two-Game Skid
Knoxville, TN (Sports Network) - Scotty Hopson hit a long jumper with 16.6 seconds remaining and finished with 10 points, as 14th-ranked Tennessee escaped with a 61-60 win over SEC rival Florida at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Wayne Chism finished with a team-high 16 points and 11 rebounds, while J.P. Prince chipped in with 12 points and seven boards for Tennessee (16-4, 4-2 SEC), which had lost consecutive games to Georgia and Vanderbilt coming into the contest.
Alex Tyus went for a game-best 18 points to go along with seven rebounds for Florida (15-6, 4-3), which had a four-game winning streak snapped. Chandler Parsons chipped in with 14 points and eight boards, while Erving Walker ended with nine points in defeat.
With Tennessee leading 57-55 late in the game, Parsons’ layup tied the contest with a shade over a minute to play. Chism was then fouled on the Vols’ next possession and drained both tries from the stripe to give his squad a two- point lead with 42 seconds left.
Chandler then came up big for the Gators, knocking down a three-pointer with 34 ticks remaining to give Florida a 60-59 lead. After Tennessee called a timeout to diagram a final play, Hopson hit a long jumper just inside the arc for a 61-60 UT lead with 16.6 seconds to go.
On Florida’s ensuing possession, Walker drove toward the basket down the right side of the floor, stopped and dished to Tyus, who missed a short jumper. Hopson secured the rebound and dribbled out the final seconds on the clock as Tennessee prevailed.
Florida jumped out to a 17-9 lead eight minutes into the contest after a Tyus layup, then stretched its advantage to double-digits, 34-24, on a Kenny Boynton make with 1:43 left in the opening half.
The Volunteers managed to close out the stanza on a high note with baskets by Chism and Cameron Tatum, but UT still trailed 34-28 heading into the locker room.
An 11-5 run to start the second half allowed the Vols to quickly tie the game after Chism’s layup knotted it at 39-all nearly 5 1/2 minutes in.
The game went back-and-forth the rest of the way, and after Chism’s layup, the Volunteers were ahead 57-54 with two minutes to go. Parsons was then fouled from beyond the arc, but made only 1-of-3 from the stripe for a two- point game.
Tennessee improved to 69-48 in the all-time series against Florida...The Volunteers shot 38.5 percent from the field and made 7-of-23 from three-point territory...Florida finished 47.9 percent from the field and 4-of-16 from beyond the arc.
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