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Tennessee Men's Basketball Gets It Done At Home As The Vols Beat Georgia Southern

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Basketball

The University of Tennessee men's basketball team defeated Georgia Southern, 74-56, Tuesday night at Food City Center.

Junior forward Jonas Aidoo turned in his finest performance as a collegian, shattering his career high with a game-best 29 points on 10-of-16 shooting in a wire-to-wire triumph for No. 12/10 Tennessee (7-3).

The Volunteers raced out to a 10-0 lead after just 4:02, with Aidoo tallying each of the points. Georgia Southern (0-10) did not make its first field goal until 14:41 showed on the first-half clock.

Tennessee extended its edge as high as 28 before the break and took that exact margin, 49-21, into the intermission. Aidoo personally scored as many points as the Eagles in the first half, tallying 21 on 8-of-11 shooting—all in the first 17 minutes—to already set career bests in both points and made field goals.

The Volunteers made their final eight shots of the frame to finish with a 60.0 percent (18-of-30) clip, their first time reaching that mark in a half since Jan. 28, 2023. They also registered a commanding 26-4 margin in paint points through 20 minutes.

Georgia Southern steadily chipped away in the second half and scored 10 consecutive points in 98 seconds to pull within 13, 63-50, with 7:05 remaining. Tennessee, though, responded with nine straight points of its own to go back up by 22, 72-50, with 3:42 to go.

Tennessee went on to register an 18-point decision, already its fourth win of the season by at least that much.

Along with scoring over twice as many points as any other player on either team, Aidoo also had two more rebounds than anyone else. His 29 point, 11-rebound double-double was the first such performance by a Volunteer since Dec. 15, 2018, and he added two steals, two blocks and one assist. He became the first Division I player with that stat line since Feb. 27, 2023.

No other Tennessee player finished in double figures, although three had exactly seven points. Junior guard Zakai Zeigler scored six while notching a season- and game-high seven assists.

Redshirt sophomore guard Derrick Harris Jr., scored 13 points for Georgia Southern and was the only other player on the floor to reach double digits.

The Volunteers held Georgia Southern to 27.1 percent (19-of-70) shooting on the night and finished with a 17-5 advantage in fast-break points, while also posting 17 assists to the Eagles' eight.

Next, Tennessee plays the final non-home game of its non-conference slate, a Basketball Hall of Fame Series neutral-site contest against NC State set for Saturday at 10 p.m. ET, live on ESPN2 from the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas.

TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS POSTGAME NOTES

• Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes now owns 786 victories in his career, tying Lefty Driesell for No. 15 on the all-time wins list (min. five years at a Division I school).
• After the victory over Georgia Southern, Barnes has now defeated 199 different DI programs in his 37-year career as a head coach.
• Barnes improved to 32-0 all-time as a head coach against the current members of the Sun Belt Conference.
• The Volunteers now own a 26-game non-conference home winning streak, dating back to the 2020-21 season opener versus Colorado on Dec. 8, 2020.
• The last time Tennessee made at least 60 percent of its shots in a half was Jan. 28, 2023, when it went 15-of-24 (62.5 percent) after the break against Texas.
• The Volunteers have held a halftime lead of 28-plus points twice this season, as they took a 29-point edge, 41-12, into the locker room on Nov. 6 against Tennessee Tech.
• The Eagles' 27.1 field-goal percentage was the lowest by a Tennessee opponent since Feb. 4, 2023, when Auburn shot 23.6 percent.
• Additionally, Tuesday marked the second time a Tennessee foe shot under 30 percent from the floor this year, as Tennessee Tech went 14-of-51 (27.5 percent) on Nov. 6.
• Georgia Southern did not have more points than Aidoo did individually until 19:51 remained in the game, when the margin was 23-21.
• Aidoo has scored 13-plus points in each of the last four games after previously doing so twice in his first 60 collegiate outings.
• Furthermore, Aidoo has tallied 13-plus points in five of the past seven contests after previously doing so just once in his first 57 appearances.
• Aidoo's 29 points and 10 made field goals surpassed his prior career bests of 17 and seven, respectively, both of which were set just one week ago, Nov. 5, against George Mason.
• In addition, Aidoo's 16 field-goal attempts eclipsed his previous career high of 13 on Nov. 20, 2023, versus Syracuse in the Allstate Maui Invitational in Honolulu.
• Aidoo's double-double was the third of his career, including his second of the 2023-24 season.
• Just two prior Volunteers have posted a 29-point double-double in Barnes' nine-year tenure: Admiral Schofield on Dec. 15, 2018, at Memphis (29 points and 11 rebounds) and Grant Williams on Nov. 9, 2018, versus Louisiana (31 points and 10 rebounds).
• Norfolk State's Kris Blankston was the last Division I player with at least 29 points, 11 rebounds, two blocks and two steals in a game, doing so Feb. 27, 2023, at NC Central, while the last Power Six player to do so was Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe, the consensus national player of the year, on March 17, 2022, against St. Peter's in Indianapolis in an overtime contest in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Iowa's Kris Murray is the most recent Power Six player to record the aforementioned stat line in a regulation affair, doing so on Jan. 13, 2022, against Indiana.
• The last Tennessee player with 20-plus points before halftime was Jordan McRae, who did so 10 seasons ago against South Carolina, on Feb. 8, 2014.
• Tennessee now has six players on its roster with at least one 20-point game, including five who have done so as Volunteers.
• Zeigler's seven assists tied for the most by a Volunteer this season, matching the mark set by fifth-year guard Josiah-Jordan James in the most recent game, Dec. 9 against Illinois.
• Redshirt freshman guard Freddie Dilione V, with 4:15 left in the first half, connected on a 3-pointer for the first time in his career.
• Tuesday marked just the first time this season fifth-year guard Dalton Knecht did not score in double figures and only the second time he did not post double-digit points in at least one half of a game.