PHILADELPHIA — Virginia’s Thijs De Ridder nailed his fourth triple of the game. Virginia led 71-70 with just over two minutes to play as the heavy Cavalier crowd came alive at XFinity Mobile Arena. Tennessee was in a familiar position, letting a game they controlled all night slip away in the final minutes. Until they didn’t.
The Vols played turned in their most complete performance of the season and weathered the storm late to defeat Virginia 79-72 and advance to the Sweet 16 for a fourth straight season.
“We were really good tonight. We were really good,” Tennessee senior guard Grant Hurst told RTI postgame. “Didn’t let emotions get involved. They went up. The crowd got involved. Some hectic plays in that game.”
Tennessee built a lead with a collection of players turning in strong performances. None more so than Bishop Boswell. The sophomore shooting guard entered the game having made just one of his last nine three-point attempts.
But Boswell caught fire, hitting three first half triples and finishing the game with 13 points on four-for-nine shooting from deep. But the shooting was just a part of Boswell’s crucial performance. He totaled a career-high nine assists while not once turning the ball over.
“It takes pressure off him (Ja’Kobi), number one, because he’s had it on his shoulders all year,” Tennessee assistant coach Gregg Polinsky said. “And Bish is good enough to do that, but when Bishop is handling and making good decisions with the basketball, it changes our basketball team.”
There was Jaylen Carey who scored 10 points including seven in the first half. Felix Okpara was fantastic on the defensive end and finished the night with seven points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
When Virginia first tied the game with four minutes and change to play it was J.P. Estrella who hit two free throws in the bonus and a tough turnaround a possession later to keep Tennessee ahead.
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“Fe does what Fe does,” Polinsky said. “I don’t want to— like, JP made some huge shots. I could go through it, Carey who was good today. We had guys, even if they played like Amari or Ethan, short minutes, they impacted the game in positive way.”
Don’t let the strong performances of Tennessee’s role players make you think its stars didn’t perform. Ja’Kobi Gillespie was terrific, scoring 21 points and dishing out six assists. Nate Ament, who is clearly no at full health, added 16 points, four rebounds and a block.
Ament was terrific after Virginia reclaimed the lead with 2:03 to play. He got to the basket and drew a foul, making both free throws to take the lead back for good. Okpara was terrific on a d Hall drive and miss, securing the defensive rebound.
In a second half where Virginia scored nine straight possessions at one point, Tennessee held the Cavaliers scoreless on four of their final five possessions.
“Backing up a little bit, making the court a little more compact,” Polinsky said. “Because they kept hitting it with ball screens. Number 28, De Ridder, like we knew he could make a three, but that wasn’t our biggest concern. He made some big ones. We tried to protect the lane. So they did some good things, but I thought we just grinded it out, hung in there, made some key stops at key times. And thank God, grab some rebounds.”
On the offensive end, Tennessee did what it’s struggled to do so often this season— make its free throws. Starting with the two previously mentioned Ament free throws, Tennessee made nine of 10 foul shots to ice the game.
The Vols have been searching for a complete 40 minutes all season. Late game turnovers kept Tennessee’s win over Virginia from being that complete performance. But it was pretty close, and this time, the Vols survived the late game Cavalier comeback to advance.
“We’ve been very transparent about our road to here,” Hurst said. “The ups, the downs. When it being up in games, being down in games, coming back and winning, both sides of the story. Tonight we were in control the whole game and then we lost the lead and then we were able to settle back down and get it done.”
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