KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — No. 5 Tennessee men's basketball avenged its loss to Texas A&M on the road earlier this season with a dominant victory at the Food City Center on Saturday night.
The Vols and Aggies battled in a back-and-forth first half, but Tennessee turned on the jets to go into halftime up ten and continued pouring it on after the break in a resounding 86-51 effort on home court.
The Vols' victory, combined with an Alabama loss to Kentucky earlier on Saturday, moved Tennessee into a tie with the Crimson Tide for first place in the SEC standings.
Tennessee got off to a better start than it did in its loss to Texas A&M on the road in their last meeting and the Vols built an early 11-3 lead.
The Aggies responded when Wade Taylor made back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to 11-9 and the Aggies carried that momentum into a 12-2 run to get in front 15-13.
Tennessee answered with a run of their own when Zakai Zeigler drained a triple to finish off a 7-0 run and get the Vols back ahead 20-16
Through the first media timeout, they blocked two shots to set the throne on the defensive end and shot 60 percent from the field. However, after leading 11-3, Wade Taylor who did the same in the first game drilled threes. He made two back-to-back to trim the deficit to 11-9.
Once again, Texas A&M fought back and continued to connect from long range. Jace Carter made a pair of three-pointers to knot the game up at 24-24 with under five minutes to go in the first half, but the Vols closed the frame on a 13-3 run and a Santiago Vescovi three at the buzzer got Tennessee up 37-27 at the break.
Tennessee continued to pull away in the second half with multiple big runs, including a 7-0 stretch where Dalton Knecht sank a three and Jonas Aidoo threw down a vicious dunk to help get the Vols up 49-32.
The Vols' lead swelled to 20 points when Zakai Zeigler dialed up a perfect pass to Jahmai Mashack to finish a layup and make it a 59-39 game.
Dalton Knecht led the scoring effort for Tennessee with 24 points and added seven assists in another standout performance, while Jonas Aidoo put up another double-double with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
Zeigler flirted with a triple-double and finished with nine points along with nine rebounds and a whopping 14 assists in the win.
Tennessee gets to stay home for its next matchup against Auburn on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. inside the Food City Center.
