Josiah-Jordan James scored 14 of his game-high 23 points in the second half as No. 13 Tennessee remained in contention to win the Southeastern Conference regular-season title with a 75-68 victory over Georgia on Tuesday in Athens, Ga.
James shot 8-for-12 from the field, including 3-for-7 from 3-point range, in addition to amassing eight rebounds and five assists for Tennessee (22-7, 13-4 SEC). It was the Volunteers’ third straight win and their eighth in the past nine games.
Kennedy Chandler added 16 points, while Santiago Vescovi chipped in 11 points and five rebounds for the Volunteers, who won in Athens for the first time in seven tries dating to the 2011-12 season. John Fulkerson had 12 points, and Uros Plavsic grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Aaron Cook had 17 points and four assists and Kario Oquendo added 16 points for Georgia (6-24, 1-16), which has lost 10 straight games and 18 of its past 19 contests. Braelin Bridges had 12 points on 6-for-7 shooting.
Tennessee moved within a half-game of No. 5 Auburn (25-4, 13-3) in the SEC standings. The Tigers play at Mississippi State on Wednesday. No. 7 Kentucky (24-6, 13-4), which defeated Ole Miss 83-72 on Tuesday, is tied with the Volunteers. No. 14 Arkansas (23-6, 12-4), which is a game behind Auburn, hosts LSU on Wednesday.
The league’s 14 teams close the regular season on Saturday before heading to the conference tournament in Tampa, Fla., which begins on March 9.
After Georgia took a 39-37 lead on Oquendo’s 3-pointer with 17:55 left in the game, the Volunteers took over behind James. He hit three 3-pointers and added a jumper as he accounted for 11 of Tennessee’s points during a 19-7 run that gave Tennessee a 56-46 lead with 13:34 left.
After Tennessee pushed its lead to 64-49 with 9:45 left, the Bulldogs went on an 11-0 run to pull to within four with 6:05 left.
But that was as close as the Bulldogs would get, as Fulkerson scored on back-to-back possessions to push the lead to 68-60 with 3:23 remaining.
–Field Level Media
