Tennessee head basketball coach Rick Barnes gestures to his elbow during an NCAA basketball game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Montana Grizzlies at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. Igor Milicic Jr. scored a season-high 23 points and recorded nine rebounds, helping lead No. 11 Tennessee to a 103-68 win over visiting Austin Peay on Sunday.
Zakai Zeigler added 19 points and eight assists for Tennessee (4-0), becoming the fifth player in program history to record 500 career assists. Jordan Gainey added 15 points off the bench, while Cade Phillips chipped in 13 points and nine boards. Felix Okpara had 12 points, followed by Jahmai Mashack’s 10.
Austin Peay (3-1) was led by Isaac Haney’s 22 points. LJ Thomas added 20 for the Governors, who shot just 35.5 percent from the field, while Tennessee made 37 of its 58 (63.8 percent) shots.
Austin Peay took its first and only lead on the game’s first possession, as Haney drilled a triple to put the Governors ahead 3-0. From there, Zeigler’s back-to-back jumpers capped a 9-0 Tennessee run, before Sai Witt’s layup stopped the bleeding.
Another Tennessee run ensued, as its lead ballooned to 21-5 on Milicic’s layup at the 13:26 mark.
After Thomas poured in seven straight points to cut Austin Peay’s deficit to 23-14, Tennessee answered with a 15-4 run, stamped with Gainey’s dunk with 6:23 left in the first. The Volunteers held Austin Peay without a field goal for the final 4:47 of the first half, and led 52-29 at halftime. Milicic led the way with 17 first-half points for Tennessee, which shot 70.4 percent (19-for-27) from the field in the opening half.
From there, the Volunteers scored the first six points of the second half, as Zeigler’s layup extended Tennessee’s lead to 58-29 with 18:19 left. After Cameron Carr’s triple pushed Tennessee’s advantage to 78-48 with 10:18 remaining, Tekao Carpenter knocked down consecutive 3-pointers to jumpstart a 13-5 Austin Peay run.
The Volunteers then finished the game on a 20-7 run, as Phillips’ tip-in with 51 seconds left gave Tennessee its first 100-point game at home since beating Saint Joseph’s 102-66 in December 2020.
–Field Level Media
