Tennessee, behind 17 points from Ja’Kobi Gillespie and 13 from Nate Ament, scored a 69-65 road upset of No. 19 Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon in Southeastern Conference play before a sellout crowd of 14,316 in Nashville, Tenn.
The Volunteers (20-7, 10-4) shot 43.1% from the floor and outrebounded the smaller Commodores 39-30 in winning their fourth consecutive game and handing Vanderbilt its second straight loss.
Ament’s contested, mid-range jumper with 54 seconds left gave Tennessee the lead for good, and Gillespie canned two free throws tries in the final 13.2 seconds.
Tyler Tanner led Vanderbilt with 16 points, and the Vols held Tyler Nickel — who entered the game averaging 14.7 points — to three.
Tanner’s desperation, off-form, 3-point heave with the shot clock about to expire snapped Vanderbilt’s streak of 9:13 without a field goal and gave the Commodores a 38-37 lead with 16:55 left.
But Tennessee, through physical play that had Vanderbilt front-court starters AK Okereke and Devin McGlockton on the bench with four fouls and 9:47 left after McGlockton’s offensive foul, took the lead back at 53-51 with 8:57 left when DeWayne Brown backed down a shorter Commodore and hit a layup.
Vanderbilt led 35-31 at the half behind Tanner’s 11 points.
The Vols hit 6 of their first 7 shots from the floor and their first two foul shots in grabbing a 15-10 lead, but their shooting cooled considerably the rest of the half as Vanderbilt surged ahead by nine on a pair of Duke Miles free throws with 4:33 left.
Miles, who was Vanderbilt’s second-leading scorer (16.6 ppg) entering the game, had missed the last six contests with a knee injury. He checked into the game with 16:19 left in the first half and finished with 12 points but was just 3 of 13 from the floor.
Tennessee’s Jaylen Carey (seven points, seven rebounds), who played last season at Vanderbilt, returned to face profanity-ridden chants directed his way from the Vanderbilt student section.
