NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Chandler Bing knocked Nate Ament off his spot as he drove left. Ament briefly lost the ball, collected it, pivoted four times as he searched somewhere to pass the ball and then turned and rose up over Bing. Ament’s difficult 15-foot shot fell to give Tennessee a 66-65 lead with 53 seconds to play.
“He’s 6-foot-10 so he can rise over and shoot it,” Tennessee sophomore guard Bishop Boswell said postgame.
The Vols never relinquished the lead from that point, making three-of-five free throw attempts down the stretch and stringing four straight stops together to secure a crucial 69-65 rivalry victory.
Ament’s shot was perhaps the biggest of the game. The possession looked nearly dead and the bucket flipped how the final 50 seconds were played. Following the game, Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington took a slight jab at the officiating on the play.
“I mean, Nate Ament made a shot that was— gets perfect defense,” Byington said. “And there might have been some shuffling of feet or whatever else. And you see what happened there, but he still made the shot. And you did everything right. And sometimes you do things right and you don’t get the right result.”
Pure 🧊 from Nate Ament pic.twitter.com/0v3TgFnALV
— gmannVOLS (@gmannVOLS) February 21, 2026
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Ament’s pivot foot does shuffle on the play though it is difficult to tell if it coincided with when he lost the ball or not. Either way, officials have not put an emphasis on enforcing traveling violations this season. It was a movement that goes uncalled dozens of times in any given college basketball game. Ironically, Boswell noted that it could have been called a foul following the game.
“I think he got the ball and attacked,” Boswell said. “There was some contact. Maybe could have called it (a foul), maybe not.”
It was a rare rough night for Ament offensively. He scored just 13 points on three-of-13 shooting from the field while turning it over three times. The freshman wing grabbed nine rebounds but it was still his worst performance in over a month.
Vanderbilt was extremely physical with him, consistently knocking him down on drives with the freshman rarely getting a beneficial whistle.
“He struggled, but they had a lot to do with that, obviously,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “And he made that one when it counted. He stayed with it.”
Despite Tennessee stars Ament and Ja’Kobi Gillespie combining for nine fewer points than the 39.4 points they’re averaging in SEC play, the Vols got it done at Vanderbilt thanks to big-time performances from a number of role players.
With the win, Tennessee improves to 20-7 (10-4 SEC) on the season while Vanderbilt falls to 21-6 (8-6 SEC) in the loss. The two teams will meet again in two weeks in Knoxville to conclude the regular season.
