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Tennessee rides into SEC Tournament semifinals with win over Texas as Longhorns sweat NCAAT bubble
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Tennessee is safely into the SEC Tournament semifinals in Nashville after finishing off a strong 83-72 win over Texas. That win puts Tennessee in a rematch vs. Auburn while Texas must sweat out its status on the NCAA Tournament bubble heading into Selection Sunday.
Friday’s game was a tale of two halves for the Vols but not in a negative sense. Tennessee delivered a strong first half with Chaz Lanier leading the way with 19 points in 17 minutes played. Lanier was an efficient 8-for-11 from the field and 2-for-3 from 3-point range, an important stat with the rest of the Vols shooting 1-for-11 from deep in the half.
After halftime, it was the Zakai Zeigler show. He produced 19 points after the break while going 6-for-7 from the floor and allowed Tennessee to put the finishing touches on a strong win over the Longhorns.
When the game wrapped up, Lanier led all scorers with 23 points in the game while Zeigler finished with 19 points in a true 1-2 punch for Rick Barnes. Jahmai Mashack (13) and Igor Milicic Jr. (12) also scored in double figures for Tennessee.
For Texas, Jordan Pope and Kadin Shedrick led the Longhorns with 14 points a piece. Tre Johnson, the dynamic freshman averaging over 20 points per game, was held in check by the Vols with 11 points in 32 minutes played on Friday.
Looking ahead to the semifinals, Tennessee and Auburn played once this season, a 53-51 win by the Tigers in Auburn on Jan. 25. The Tigers are still well on their way to a No. 1 seed and are the likely No. 1 overall seed in March Madness, but they have been far from perfect down the stretch and in Nashville.
The bigger story coming out of Friday’s game is the status of the Longhorns on the edge of the final field. Heading into Friday’s action, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had Texas as his final team into the bracket after wins over Vanderbilt and Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament.
However, Lunardi cautioned everyone that there are likely to be just 3 spots available for a group of 5 teams currently on the bubble. The number will shrink if any bid stealers run to unlikely conference tournament championships, so the Longhorns will be sweating things out all the way until the final bracket is revealed on Sunday.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
