A blowout in the bayou
Tennessee men’s basketball defeats LSU, 77-56.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WVLT) - Saturday Head Coach Rick Barnes put together a new look starting five ahead of the Vols’ match with LSU. That starting lineup did some damage against the bayou tigers.
Senior guard Josiah-Jordan James posted a season-high 22 points and in his second consecutive start, Zakai Zeigler put up a second-career double-double.
Zakai on his repeat start, “I feel good coming off the bench, I feel good starting but when Coach Barnes told me, ‘Hey you have to start this game.’ I felt like I just had to step up. It’s always next man up with this team and how Coach Barnes does things. So whenever he told me to take that step up it was the same exact thing.”
The No. 9 Vols blew past LSU 77-56. A final score that come after UT led by 17 points at halftime, never led by fewer than 15 in the second half and built its lead to as many as 27.
Collectively, Tennessee scored 33 points off of 19 turnovers, while LSU had just seven. The Vols also hit 12 3-pointers, which is tied for a team-high in SEC play, 14 is the season high.
An effort James mentioned Barnes has been needing to see from the team. “Coach had been preaching that since the Kentucky game, just to come out more aggressive on both ends and I feel that we did a good job of executing that,” said James.
Zakai on his repeat start, “I feel good coming off the bench, I feel good starting but when Coach Barnes told me, ‘Hey you have to start this game.’ I felt like I just had to step up. It’s always next man up with this team and how Coach Barnes does things. So whenever he told me to take that step up it was the same exact thing.”
Tennessee had four players score in double figures, James led the way with a season-high and game-high 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting with four made threes. It marked his third-career game of 20 or more points. The senior also recorded a team-high-tying seven rebounds and three steals. Zeigler, the SEC’s assists leader in conference play, compiled a 12-point, 10-assist performance while making his second consecutive start.
James and Zeigler led the team in scoring and spoke to the impact each other makes on the court.
Zeigler said on James’ aggressiveness, ”When he is attacking and he’s getting going he’s really hard to guard. It just makes us so much better. He definitely needs to be like that at all times but when he’s in that mode, nobody’s stopping him.”
James added how Zeigler makes an instant impact with his play, “I feel like every time Zakai’s on the court it’s a game changer for us on the offensive end, the defensive end. He’s so good offensively getting in gaps, getting guys open, and also being able to create for himself. And I just feel like he’s finding his groove.”
Julian Phillips and Tyreke Key each scored 10 points and both hit a pair of threes. Key also pulled down a season-high seven rebounds.
Next for Tennessee is a contest against Georgia back inside Thompson-Boling Arena on Wednesday. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
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