No. 8 Tennessee rolls to blowout win over Vanderbilt

All five starters scored in double figures Saturday night as No. 8 Tennessee never trailed in an 88-53 Southeastern Conference rout of Vanderbilt in Knoxville, Tenn.

Dalton Knecht and Zakai Zeigler each scored 14 points for the Volunteers (19-6, 9-3 SEC), while Josiah-Jordan James added 13 and Santiago Vescovi netted 12 points. Jonas Aidoo chipped in 11 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

Tennessee was coming off a 92-63 win at Arkansas on Wednesday night and replicated that form in this one, never trailing and hurting the Commodores from long range. The Volunteers connected on 14 of 31 3-point attempts and shot 47.8 percent from the floor.

Ven-Allen Lubin scored 10 points for Vanderbilt (7-18, 2-10), which upset Texas A&M on Tuesday night but couldn't replicate that result against a much tougher foe. The Commodores' top two scorers, Ezra Manjon and Tyrin Lawrence, were held to six and eight points, respectively, and combined to hit only 6 of 16 shots from the floor.

Vanderbilt made just 18 of 54 attempts from the floor, including 7 of 25 from 3-point range. The Commodores also coughed up 19 turnovers, 13 of which occurred in the first half, when the game was decided.

The Volunteers wasted no time gaining significant separation from a team that led them at halftime last month in Nashville, Tenn., before losing 75-62.

Tennessee rattled off 10 straight points to take a 13-3 lead less than four minutes in, getting 3-pointers from James and Vescovi.

The Volunteers went on an 11-0 run to increase their lead to 26-7 after reserve forward Tobe Awaka converted a three-point play at the 10:57 mark. Aidoo made consecutive layups and assisted on Zeigler's 3-pointer to boost the margin to 33-8 with 6:39 on the clock.

The half ended with Vescovi knocking down a 3-pointer off a Zeigler assist, giving Tennessee a 51-20 lead at the break. The margin ballooned to 41 points in the second half.

—Field Level Media