No. 13 Tennessee nearly erased an ugly start and had two looks to win in the final seconds, but Syracuse made the late stops it needed to seal a 62-60 upset Tuesday night in New York.
The Vols opened with a four-minute scoring drought and missed their first six shots as Syracuse’s defense dictated the tone. Tennessee never fully found an offensive rhythm. The Vols finished with season lows in field-goal percentage (41%) and 3-point shooting (30%) on a season-low 13 attempts. The Vols also left points on the rim, going 15-of-27 on layups.
Still, Tennessee had chances because its defense kept it close and the effort of Jaylen Carey provided a steady lifeline. Carey scored a career-high 22 points on 10-of-16 shooting. He repeatedly attacked the paint through contact and giving Tennessee the scoring punch it lacked early.
The turning point came midway through the second half. Tennessee still hadn’t made more than two field goals in a row. That’s until Dewayne Brown and Carey combined for four straight baskets to trim the deficit to 50-43.
Moments later, Tennessee finally flipped the game. After Tennessee forced a second straight turnover, Jakobi Gillispie powered through traffic for a driving layup to put the Vols in front 51-50. Ament’s first three of the game completed a 10-0 run in roughly four minutes.
Gillispie set up another lead change when he found Nate Ament in the corner for a 3-pointer. Aments that swung Tennessee ahead 56-55, and the final minutes turned into a possession-by-possession fight.
Syracuse won the turnover battle where it mattered most. The Orange forced 17 turnovers and converted them into 24 points. Tennessee forced 16 turnovers but managed only 10 points off those mistakes, a gap that loomed large in a two-point game.
With the score tight late, Carey delivered again.
He finished a layup off a bounce pass from Gillispie in the final 90 seconds. Although Bishop Boswell had a quiet night offensively, he came up with Tennessee’s biggest shot. Driving in the paint he spun into a jumper to tie the game at 60 with 31 seconds left.
Tennessee had a final sequence to steal it. After a timeout as Gillispie crossed midcourt, the play call sent him driving baseline into triple coverage. Gillispie dropped a bounce pass to Carey, who absorbed contact but couldn’t get the shot to fall, and Felix Okpara couldn’t clean up the miss at the rim.
Even then, the Vols got one more chance.
Boswell fired a full-court pass to Ament in the lane for a potential game-winner at the horn. But the shot hit high off the glass as time expired. Syracuse spilled onto the floor to celebrate as the Orange completed the 62-60 upset.
Tennessee was back on the road less than a week after its loss to Kansas in the third-place game of the Player’s Era Festival in Las Vegas. The Vols will head home knowing they were within one bounce of escaping despite an off night at every scoring level.
