Tennessee basketball picked up a gritty double-overtime win over Texas A&M, 87-82.
The Vols leaned on Nate Ament in crunch time, and the freshman delivered with 23 points to help lift Tennessee. The Vols also used their size to win on the glass and stay within reach on a tough shooting night from behind the arc, though Rick Barnes will have plenty to clean up on film, especially the turnovers.
Here are three takeaways from Tennessee’s second conference win of the season.
Ament Ascends
The Vols needed someone to step up with the game tight down the stretch. A freshman delivered. Tennessee fans have been waiting for Nate Ament to meet expectations, and he finally looked the part when it mattered most.
In the final nine minutes of regulation, Ament showed his talent with a dribble-drive pull-through that ended in a left-handed layup. Three minutes later, the five-star bodied his defender and finished through contact for two. With 4:29 left, Ament drilled a baseline turnaround jumper, flashing the midrange game that has NBA scouts buzzing. He later drew a foul on a drive that pulled Tennessee within one with 13 seconds left.
Ament’s dominance carried into overtime, where he hit another turnaround jumper from the left block with 4:10 remaining, then went back to that same spot in the second overtime to put Tennessee up 77-75 early in the period. He worked the left block again to tie the game with 3:26 left in the second overtime.
Ament finished with 23 points, which matched his career-high. If the Vols can get this level of confidence from Ament, they have a much higher ceiling.
Owning the Offensive Glass
Tennessee had an inch in average height on Texas A&M. The Vols did not always turn that advantage into easy offense, but they did use it on the boards. The Aggies entered the contest ranked 132nd nationally in offensive rebound percentage allowed, and Tennessee knew that was an area it had to win. The Vols delivered, winning the rebounding battle 60-35 and the offensive boards 24-10.
With Tennessee struggling from deep at 6-for-24, crashing the glass kept the Vols in it. Even without their sharpest offensive night, they finished with 22 second-chance points. Bishop Boswell was a force on the boards, grabbing 11 rebounds, including five offensive rebounds. One of those offensive boards drew a foul that tied the game at 71 with 12 seconds left in regulation.
Press, Passes and Problems
Tennessee did a solid job taking away what Texas A&M wants most: transition offense. The Aggies had six fastbreak points, but Tennessee’s ball security has still been shaky, and live-ball mistakes are the quickest way to hand A&M the game it prefers. The Vols racked up 19 turnovers, leading to 20 Texas A&M points. The night opened with an early giveaway when Nate Ament was loose with the ball, and the pressure kept bothering Tennessee from there.
Texas A&M’s full-court pressure produced three five-second calls. Rick Barnes emphasizes crisp, two-hand passes; his teams start practices with shell work geared toward spacing, pivots and passing angles, but the execution hasn’t matched the standard. Ament and Felix Okpara both threw casual passes that A&M anticipated and intercepted, and Tennessee has struggled to consistently break the press and turn the space it creates into an advantage.
While it wasn’t pretty, the Vols picked up a Quad 2 win over the Aggies and saw Ament start to reach his potential.
