While it looked as though Tennessee was going to survive a rivalry clash in Nashville on Wednesday night, Vanderbilt had different plans in the final split second of the game.
No. 6 Tennessee was defeated by Vanderbilt, 66-65, after a buzzer-beating three-point shot from Tyrin Lawrence in the corner of the court.
Vanderbilt gave Tennessee all it could during the game. The Commodores began the game with hot three-point shooting and used that to stay close to Tennessee for a large portion of the game. Each time the Vols would jump out to a five-point lead or so, Vanderbilt would be right there to match.
Tennessee held a two-point lead for 51 of the final 52 seconds of the game until Vanderbilt’s shot to win.
VANDERBILT UPSETS NO. 6 TENNESSEE AT THE BUZZER 🚨😱 pic.twitter.com/CpTkjup76y
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 9, 2023
One bright spot of the game for Tennessee was Tyreke Key’s reemergence on the offensive end of the court. The veteran guard finished the game with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting for his second double-digit scoring game of the SEC slate.
After the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes and Tyreke Key met with the media to give their reactions to the Vols’ loss on the road. Barnes spoke about Julian Phillips passing up the inevitable dunk in the final minute of the game and his message to the team in the locker room. Key, on the other hand, spoke about how the team can bounce back from this loss and get back on track moving forward.
Check out both interviews, as well as Rocky Top Insider’s quick game takeaways, here:
