Tennessee basketball worked at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center Saturday afternoon in an open scrimmage before the Vol football matchup with Arkansas.
The Vols held two 20-minute scrimmages though the teams were largely the same. The only difference is that Ethan Burg and Amaree Abram switched teams. So the stats below are from the full 40-minute scrimmage.
Before we get into more notes, let’s start with some injuries. Tennessee held Cade Phillips out with an abdomen injury. Bishop Boswell rolled his right ankle in the second half and did not return.
The Orange team just absolutely blitzed the Grey team to start the first half. Orange jumped out to a 17-0 lead with Ja’Kobi Gillespie scoring nine of the points and assisting on another bucket. That was the start of a reoccurring theme of the day— Gillespie was the best player on the court. Gillespie went for 34 points, making six-of-nine three-point attempts.
I didn’t track assists or steals but Gillespie had a number of both. Gillespie recorded a number of steals and also set up his bigs for a number of easy buckets. His numbers were even more impressive considering he sat on the bench for the final 5-ish minutes. The Maryland transfer continues to do little to ease the preseason hype.
Nate Ament did not have as dominant of a day. Ament scored 18 points and did the bulk of his damage at the foul line and in the first half. He didn’t shoot the ball great. That’s how I think Ament is going to be early in the season. He’s not going to be super ball dominant or put up insane numbers, but he’s just going to consistently make good plays.
The second half went much different with Grey jumping out to a 36-23 lead and then survived a late push to win 48-47 on an Amari Evans put back with 0.5 seconds remaining. A huge reason why was JP Estrella who was absolutely dominant in the second half.
Estrella was fine in the first half but did most of his damage at the foul line. In the second half, Estrella was dominant scoring 20 points on 10-of-10 shooting from the field.
The freshman Evans was also awesome in the second half. He is a defensive first guy and that’s how he could earn a role this season. But in the second half, he made a few shots and also had a few nice assists to set teammates up for easy buckets.
Troy Henderson is another guy that had a really nice day. Henderson is just a crisp offensive player and plays with a ton of confidence on that end of the court. Right now, that separates him from the young backcourt group of Boswell, Evans and Clarence Massamba.
I continue to believe that the veteran guard Ethan Burg and Amaree Abram are the top candidates to start at shooting guard. Which is why it makes sense that both spent a half playing with the first team. Burg has a little bit more offensive juice to his game with the diversity of things he can do, including running the point. But Abram is a good catch-and-shoot guard and has the right defensive mentality.
Jaylen Carey, Felix Okpara and DeWayne Brown all had moments in the game but didn’t really do anything out of the norm. Brown is a talented freshman and I’m curious to see what his role ends up being. The Vols are very deep in the front court.
With that, it’s on to the stats.
Stats
1st Half — Orange 48, Grey 26
2nd Half — Grey 48, Orange 47
FINAL — Orange 95, Grey 76
Couple notes. These are unofficial stats kept by hand. I am three points over and I can not figure out where I am off. Shoutout to The Daily Times Caleb Jarreau who helped keep shooting stats.
Orange
Ja’Kobi Gillespie — 34 points, 8-12 FG, 6-9 3PT, 8-10 FT
Amaree Abram (one half) — 2 points, 0-4 FG, 0-1 3PT, 2-2 FT
Nate Ament — 18 points, 6-12 FG, 2-6 3 PT, 4-8 FT
DeWayne Brown — 9 points, 4-6 FG, 1-1 FT
Felix Okpara — 12 points, 6-7 FG, 0-2 FT
Troy Henderson — 14 points, 4-10 FG, 4-9 3PT, 2-2 FT
Campbell Duncan — 4 points, 2-2 FG
Ethan Burg (one half) — 5 points, 1-4 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-2 FT
Grey
Ethan Burg (one half) — 10 points, 4-7 FG, 2-5 3 PT
Bishop Boswell — 0 points, 0-4 FG
Amari Evans — 12 points, 5-14 FG, 2-5 3PT
Jaylen Carey — 10 points, 5-7 FG, 0-3 FT
JP Estrella — 28 points, 12-14 FG, 4-6 FT
Clarence Massamba — 0 points, 0-4 FG, 0-3 3PT
Grant Hurst — 6 points, 3-4 FG, 0-1 3PT
Gavin Paull — 0 points, 0-2 FG
Amaree Abram (one half) — 10 points, 3-8 FG, 1-2 3 PT, 3-4 FT
