KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee men’s basketball upset the nation’s top team Alabama on Wednesday night inside Thompson-Boling Arena following back-to-back buzzer-beater losses to Vanderbilt and Missouri.
UT was down two starters as they were without Josiah-Jordan James due to an ankle sprain and Julian Phillips to a hip injury.
The tenth-ranked Vols and top-ranked Crimson Tide played an even game filled with intensity through the first two media timeouts.
Tennessee forced Alabama into quite a bit of turnover. On the other end; the team made three three-pointers that powered the offense even though they didn’t shoot the ball well overall through about the first eight minutes. UT led 13-12 after the first two media timeouts.
Olivier Nkamhoua gave Tennessee a 19-15 lead after a one-handed slam dunk off an alley-pop feed that had the arena buzzing.
The Vols were up 19-18 later in the first half and then went on a 7-0 run after a Zeigler three-pointer and two layups from Uros Plavsic to put them in front 26-18.
The Crimson Tide finished the half out scoring the Vols 11-3 and it was 29-29 at halftime.
The Vols forced 12 first-half turnovers and outscored Alabama off of turnovers 17-0. Zeigler led the way with 9 points off of three three-pointers.
To start the second half, Nkamhoua scored off an alert pop from Zeigler to make it 31-29. Vescovi made a three-pointer a little later to get the Vols up 36-31. The Crimson Tide tied it at 40-40 K a three-pointer from Brandon Miller, but UT scored four straight points after plenty of hustle plays to get up 44-40.
Vescovi then drilled a three-pointer to give Tennessee a 47-40 lead. Later on, Nkamhoua made two free throws that put the Vols up by as many as eight points by a score of 51-43.
Tennessee got up by as many as 19 points after Plavsic hit a circus layup and while he was fouled. He made the free throw to give the Vols a 56-47 lead.
Alabama would not recover and the Vols went on to win, 68-59.
This marks the sixth straight win for Tennessee against an AP Top 10 team at home.
The Vols move to 9-4 in conference play and play Kentucky on Saturday on the road.
