Zakai Zeigler scored 16 points as No. 19 Tennessee struggled offensively at times but led most of the way en route to a 73-64 home victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn.
The Volunteers (18-6, 9-3 SEC) won their fourth straight heading into Tuesday’s rematch with No. 5 Kentucky, which throttled them 107-79 last month in Lexington.
Zeigler scored in double figures for the sixth straight game on a night when some of Tennessee’s other key players struggled offensively.
Josiah-Jordan James added 14 and 10 rebounds while shooting 2 of 14 from the floor and hitting 9 of 10 free throws. John Fulkerson added 12 while leading scorer Santiago Vescovi contributed 10 and second-leading scorer Kennedy Chandler was held to six as the Volunteers shot 36.7 percent.
Scotty Pippen Jr. led all scorers with 23 points but did not hit a basket in the final 5:03, while Vanderbilt as a team did not make a field goal over the final 2:51. Myles Stute hit five 3-pointers and added 17 points as the Commodores (13-11, 5-7) shot 40.8 percent and lost their 10th straight to Tennessee.
Pippen’s layup with 7:22 remaining in the first half brought Vanderbilt within 28-24, but Tennessee quickly surged ahead. The Volunteers scored nine straight points for a 37-24 lead on a free throw by Zeigler with 4:03 left and held a 44-32 lead at halftime.
Vanderbilt scored 11 straight points to get within 50-45 on a 3-pointer by Stute and got within 52-51 on Pippen’s jumper with 11:34 left. The Commodores continued to hang around and were within 61-59 on another Pippen jumper with 5:03 remaining, but Tennessee appeared to finally secure the game.
After two free throws by James, Chandler scored his first points of the game by hitting a putback with 4:12 left and then hit two more layups for a 69-59 lead with 3:02 to go. Vanderbilt was within 69-64 on two free throws by Pippen with 1:37 left, but Stute missed a 3-pointer with 41 seconds left and then James hit four free throws in the final 29 seconds to secure it.
–Field Level Media
