ORLANDO – Fourth-seeded Tennessee fended off a late rally by No. 13 seed Louisiana and is on to the NCAA Match spherical of 32 after securing a 58-55 win Thursday on the Amway Middle.

Graduate Tyreke Key, enjoying in his first profession NCAA Match recreation, led the Vols with 12 factors in 31 minutes-tied for his most minutes performed since December. Jahmai Mashack was the one different Vol in double figures, scoring 11 factors on 4-of-6 capturing, dishing three assists and grabbing two steals.

Uros Plavsic, making his first begin since Jan. 17, scored 9 factors on 4-of-5 capturing.

After closing the primary half on an 11-0 run after which outscoring Louisiana 13-6 within the opening 6:06 of the second half, Tennessee prolonged its result in as many as 18 factors.

The Vols held an 18-point lead on three separate events in a two-minute span eight earlier than a 13-0 Louisiana run lower the Tennessee lead down to simply 5 factors on a 3-pointer from Kobe Julien with 7:29 remaining, 48-43.

Popping out of a timeout, Tennessee answered with a 6-2 spurt-with 4 factors coming by Mashack-to pull again in entrance by 9 factors by the under-four minute media timeout.

With simply over a minute to go and Tennessee main by eight, Louisiana staged one closing comeback attempt-scoring 5 straight factors and slicing Tennessee’s result in 56-53 with 23 seconds to play.

Josiah-Jordan James and Julian Phillips every went 1-for-2 on the free-throw line within the closing 20 seconds to safe the win for the Vols.

Within the first half, Tennessee turned the ball over 12 instances, however closed the interval on an 11-0 run and took a 30-19 lead into the halftime break. Regardless of 12 turnovers of its personal, Tennessee compelled eight Louisiana turnovers and restricted the Ragin’ Cajuns to simply 30 % capturing from the sector in the course of the first 20 minutes.

The Vols led by as many as eight factors within the opening 10 minutes of the sport at 19-11 earlier than Louisiana scored eight straight to tie the sport up at 19 with 4:43 to go within the first half.

With the rating tangled up at 19, Tennessee then rattled off an 11-0 run over the ultimate 4:06 of the half-capped off by a Plavsic bucket simply earlier than the buzzer. Plavsic had a team-high seven factors within the first half on 3-of-3 capturing.

Of Louisiana’s 19 first-half factors, 12 got here from Jordan Brown-who was 5-for-8 from the sector within the opening interval. No different Ragin’ Cajun made a couple of discipline objective within the first half.

TENNESSEE CLASSIC UNIFORMS MAKE ANOTHER APPEARANCE: For the fifth time this season, the Vols sported their “Tennessee Basic” uniforms and improved to 5-0 whereas doing so. The Massive Orange additionally wore the Tennessee Basic uniforms in wins over No. 10 Texas, No. 1 Alabama, Arkansas and within the SEC Match towards Ole Miss.

UP NEXT

Tennessee advances to Saturday’s NCAA Match spherical of 32 towards No. 5 seed Duke. Tip off is about for two:40 p.m. ET on CBS.