Tennessee holds off Louisiana-Lafayette 58-55 in NCAA opener

ORLANDO, Fla.(AP) — When shots stopped falling and an 18-point lead nearlyslipped away, Tennessee did the one thing it does best: clamp downon defense.

Tyreke Keyscored 12 points, Jahmai Mashack added 11 and the fourth-seededVolunteers withstood a late scare to hold off Louisiana-Lafayette58-55 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursdaynight.

The Ragin’Cajuns (26-8)whittled an 18-point deficit to three in thefinal minute— creating some tense moments that included acouple of technical fouls — but the Volunteers (24-10) closed itout by forcing tough shots and making just enough free throws.

“It’s notalways pretty on the offensive end for us, but we’ll find a way,”coach Rick Barnes said.

Tennessee,which lost six of 10 heading into the tournament, advanced to facefifth-seeded Duke in the East Region’s second round at the AmwayCenter. The BlueDevils routed No. 12 seed Oral Roberts 74-51earlier Thursday, giving Duke coach Jon Scheyer a win in histournament debut.

It will bethe first meeting between Tennessee and Duke in the NCAATournament.

The Volsshould hope to take much better care of the ball than they didagainst the Sun Belt Conference Tournament champions. They finishedwith 18 turnovers in the fourth game without starting point guardZakai Zeigler, who tore a ligament in his left knee in the team’sregular-season finale. Zeigler led the Southeastern Conference with6.5 assists a game.

“We can’tturn the ball over the way we did, and our guys know that,” Barnessaid.

Tennesseemade up for it on the other end, holding Louisiana to 40% shootingand forcing 14 turnovers.

“Give themcredit. They’re one of the best defensive teams in the country,”ULL coach Bob Marlin said.

Barnes andMarlin had a relatively lengthy handshake after the game,discussing what happened to create a couple of testy moments duringlate timeouts. Both benches were hit with technical fouls, andMarlin had to be restrained.

It probablyshould have been somewhat expected from a game that was a defensivegrind.

Louisiana-Lafayette trailed 48-30 in the second half beforerallying to cut it to 50-45. The Ragin’ Cajunsmade six of seven field goalsover a nearly-five-minute span to surely make Tennesseenervous. Kobe Julien was the catalyst for the comeback, scoring13 points in the second half.

But everytime ULL made it a one-score game, Tennessee either answered orforced an errant shot.

Uros Plavsicadded nine points, and Oliver Nkamhoua chipped in with eight forTennessee.

Jordan Brownled the Ragin’ Cajuns with 16 points. He carried Louisiana early,scoring 12 of the team’s 19 points in the first half. His jumper inthe paint tied the game at 19 with 4:43 remaining, but then theRagin’ Cajuns went ice cold.

Tennesseeswarmed him in the second half, often sending three defenders hisway when he touched the ball. It worked: he scored just four pointsafter halftime.

The Vols tookcontrol early with an 11-0 run to close the first half. They hitfive of six shots while holding Louisiana-Lafayette scoreless fornearly five minutes. Plavsic’s tip-in just before the buzzer wasthe capper.

Despite UT’slate surge, it was an otherwise ugly opening 20 minutes. The teamscombined for more turnovers (20) than field goals (19) and nearlyas many steals (13) as assists (14).

It was muchprettier in the end for Tennessee.

BIGPICTURE

Louisiana-Lafayette: The Ragin’ Cajuns fell to 1-7 in the NCAATournament, with their lone win coming against fourth-seededOklahoma in 1992. But longtime coach Marlin could have thefoundation for another run in 2024, considering he has 10underclassmen on his roster.

Tennessee:Barnes has the Vols in the tournament for the fifth time in eightyears. Only Kentucky (31) and Florida (19) in the SoutheasternConference have more NCAA Tournament wins than Tennessee (11) since2010.

UPNEXT

Louisiana-Lafayette needs to make sure Brown, a 6-foot-11 forward,returns for his senior season. Brown averaged 19.4 points and 8.7rebounds this season.