NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Tennessee Volunteers are headed to the sweet 16 of the NCAA men's basketball Tournament after beating Texas 62-58 in the second round.
In the final 8.8 seconds of the game Saturday night, Dalton Knecht made four free-throws — securing the win. He scored a game-high 18 points for Tennessee.
In the first minutes of the game, the Vols were ahead with an 8-4 lead. Texas answered Tennessee's early lead with a 9-2 stretch, almost tying it up at 18-17 in the first 7 minutes. Tennessee then grabbed 10 points in a row, and with only one answered basket from Texas, secured a 29-20 lead after the first half.
In the second half, Tennessee earned a game-best lead of 12 points on a third-chance basket, leading 40-28. In another back-and-forth, Texas scored 14 points to Tennessee's five, making the game 45-42 with a little over seven minutes to go — that's when Tennessee grabbed eight more of ten points for a 53-44 game with just over 4 minutes remaining.
It came down to free throws.
Tennessee's Jonas Aidoo brought Tennessee up to a 3-point lead with 48.8 seconds left — splitting a pair of free throws — but Texas stayed in the game with one more score making it 56-55. With 24 seconds left, Aidoo knocked two free throws, and Knecht hit two, 60-55.
After one more Texas 3-pointer by Tyrese Hunter at 4.2 seconds, making it a 60-58 game, Knecht made two more free-throws at 3.8 seconds and led Tennessee to the win.
Now, the Vols are headed to the sweet 16 with Coach Rick Barnes — they have reached the sweet 16 three out of nine seasons with Barnes, but have never made it past the sweet 16 with him before. They will play No. 3 Creighton on Friday, March 29 in Detroit, Michigan.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
