the best seasons in Tennessee history comes to an end with the loss, as does the college careers of Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi.
“Congratulations to Purdue, both teams fought hard,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “Our guys really put up a battle. We were going agaisnt a guy that has a unique game. I can not tell you how special this team was to coach.”
Zach Edey opened the scoring with a hook shot over Jonas Aidoo and then Knecht responded with a midrange to even it at 2-2. James answered a couple of Purdue buckets with the Vols’ first 3-pointer of the game.
Tobe Awaka hit a fadeaway jumper over Edey and Knecht hit his first 3-pointer of the game to give Tennessee a 14-10 lead with 15 minutes to play in the half. Knecht hit another 3-pointer to give him 10 early points.
Braden Smith hit the first 3-pointer of the game for Purdue to tie the game at 17 with 10 minutes to play and then Edey gave Purdue the lead with another hook shot. James and Zakai Zeigler hit back-to-back triples and took the lead back for the Vols.
Knecht stayed hot with two more 3-pointers and Tennessee was all of a sudden up 32-21 and Purdue called timeout with 5:11 to go in the first. Purdue then answered with a quick 6-0 run to prompt a timeout from Tennessee. The Boilermakers continued their run which reached 12-0 and gave them the lead back at 32-33.
“We were getting a lot of fouls toward the end of the half,” Tennessee guard Jahmai Mashack said. “They got to the free throw line a lot and they were able to knock in some threes. But we fouled a lot.”
Knecht finally broke Tennessee’s nearly five-minute scoring drought with a transition dunk but the Vols trailed 36-34 at the break.
Knecht hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game to give Tennessee its first basket of the second half and then caught a lob from Jahmai Mashack to give the Vols the lead back at 39-38. Edey immediately answered with another short hook shot. Aidoo and Awaka both quickly picked up their third fouls of the game trying to contain Edey. Lance Jones gave Purdue a 46-41 lead with 15 minutes to play in the game. Awaka was called for his fourth foul and was replaced by J.P. Estrella at the 14-minute mark.
Jordan Gainey hit a trey and then Zeigler scored on a fast break layup to cut the lead to one, but then the Boilermakers scored two quick baskets to put the lead back at 51-46. Gainey hit another trey and Knecht finished off a fastbreak with a layup and Tennesse found itself only down by one with 8:45 to play.
