Tennessee beats North Carolina 89-72 in Tip-Off tournament

Updated Nov. 21, 2021 5:53 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Freshman Zakai Zeigler scored 18 points to lead No. 17 Tennessee over No. 18 North Carolina 89-72 on Sunday in the consolation game of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament.

Santiago Vescovi added 18 points and nine rebounds for the Vols (3-1), who bounced back from a 71-53 loss to Villanova on Saturday.

Brady Manek hit six 3-pointers and scored 24 points for the Tar Heels (3-2), who fell to Purdue in Saturday’s opening round. Armando Bacot had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Tennessee, which went with a three-guard lineup early in the first half, led by seven points at halftime. The Vols extended that to 12 early in the second half on a run capped when Vescovi stole the ball from Dawson Garcia and laid it up on the other end.

The Volunteers would then answer whenever North Carolina made little runs.

A driving layup by Zeigler pushed the lead to 74-57 with just over 7 minutes to go and his 3-pointer a couple of minutes later off a steal by Brandon Huntley-Hatfield made it 79-60, essentially putting the game out of reach.

North Carolina had won 10 of the previous 11 matchups between the programs, a series that dates to 1911. The Volunteers' last win over the Tar Heels came in 1949.

BIG PICTURE

North Carolina: Carolina shot 40% from the floor, but came into the game shooting 50.6%. The Tar Heels hit 10 more 3-pointers and are averaging more than nine per game, which is on pace to break the school record of 8.7 per game set in 2018-19.

Tennessee: The Volunteers dominated in the paint, outscoring North Carolina 54-22. ... The Vols, who had 18 turnovers on Saturday, had just 10 Sunday, leading to 14 North Carolina points. The Vols scored 19 points on 13 UNC giveaways.

UP NEXT

North Carolina: The Tar Heels host UNC Asheville on Tuesday.

Tennessee: Tennessee heads back to Knoxville and will host Tennessee Tech on Friday

___

More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

share

in this topic

Brady Manek

Armando Bacot

Santiago Vescovi

North Carolina Tar Heels

Tennessee Volunteers