Tennessee basketball’s stars played like it as the Vols rolled past Northern Kentucky 95-56 to improve to 2-0 on the young season Saturday afternoon. The Vols fell behind in the game’s opening minutes due to simple mistakes before cruising to the finish line.
Here’s three quick takeaways on the victory.
Tennessee Takes Control With Massive Run
After a sloppy opener, Tennessee again came out a bit sloppy in the game’s opening minutes. Northern Kentucky jumped out to a quick 10-5 lead, turning a pair of careless Tennessee turnovers into points. But from there the Vols’ quickly responded.
Tennessee ran off an 18-2 run in just over four minutes to build a double-digit lead that would remain for the vast majority of the remaining game. Nate Ament and Bishop Boswell sparked the run with three pointers and then JP Estrella provided a major boost, scoring six straight points to make it a 12-0 run.
After an Ethan Elliott layup, Ethan Burg made a three-pointer and Ja’Kobi Gillespie finished in transition to complete the run.
Three-point shooting largely propelled the Tennessee run and was a constant for the Vols’ offense in the first half. Tennessee made 10-of-19 three-point attempts in the first half before cooling off a bit and finishing the game 12-of-29 from beyond the arc.
Tennessee’s defense was also stellar during the 18-2 run, holding the Norse to one-of-eight shooting and not allowing them a single second chance opportunity.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie And Nate Ament Shine
Transfer point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie and five-star freshman Nate Ament projected to be by far Tennessee’s best players entering the year. It’s not that either were bad in the exhibition against Duke or the opener against Mercer. But combined, they did not play to quite as high a level as expected. But the duo were dominant against Northern Kentucky.
Gillespie got Tennessee going. He scored 13 of his 20 points in the first half with all 13 coming in the game’s first 13 minutes. He had a pair of bad turnovers that led to baskets but they were his only two on the game while dishing out four assists. He also showed a burst of athleticism that I hadn’t seen from him on this transition dunk.
Oh so like how did Ja’Kobi Gillespie just do that. #Vols
🎥 @ElijahNixon18 pic.twitter.com/f2oIWat60e
— Emilie Rae Cochrane (@EmCochranetv) November 8, 2025
After totaling just one assists against Mercer, Ament was looking to get others involved early. He totaled four assists in the first half and then really got going as a scorer in the second half. Ament scored 25 points in the second half and was lethal both in the midrange and in transition.
The 6-foot-10 wing finished the game with a very balanced stat line scoring 23 points on six-of-12 shooting from the field with eight rebounds and five assists.
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JP Estrella Continues To Impress Early This Season
Few on Tennessee’s roster were more intriguing entering the season than JP Estrella. The redshirt sophomore big man is very talented on the offensive end of the court but missed nearly all of last season with a foot injury that continued to limit him the first half of the offseason.
But through two games, Estrella has looked like a player who didn’t miss any time and was fully healthy all offseason.
Estrella continued a strong start to the season with the best showing of his young career against Northern Kentucky. The 6-foot-11 big man totaled the first double-double of his career, scoring 17 points on eight-of-11 shooting while grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out three assists. His 20 minutes played were tied for the most of a Tennessee big man against Northern Kentucky.
Final Stats
Up Next
Tennessee returns to action this Wednesday, Nov. 12 when they host North Florida at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. ET and the SEC Network+ is streaming the game.
