Tennessee basketball led or was tied with Alabama for all but 24 seconds on Saturday night in Knoxville. Despite the success for the majority of the outing, the Tide got the last laugh with a late basket from Labaron Philon that proved to be the deciding shot in a 71-69 win.
This now snaps the Vols’ five-game winning streak over the Tide. This included a strong win on the road in Tuscaloosa earlier in the season, behind a 29-point showing from Nate Ament. However, in this meeting, Ament was injured and only played 11 minutes. He scored just two points.
As Tennessee watched its lead slip away, it gave up makes on seven-straight possessions down the stretch. The only two misses it forced, Alabama cleaned it up with an offensive board. That was an outlier from the rest of the game, as the Vols led the battle on the glass by 17.
Offensively, Tennessee failed to score for the final 2:06 of the game. Ja’Kobi Gillespie was the team’s leading scorer, posting 26 points, along with seven assists, five rebounds and eight steals. He played for 36 minutes.
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After the game, RTI’s Ryan Schumpert and Ryan Sylvia shared their thoughts on the Vols’ late-game collapse.
Check out the RTI: Reaction below:
