Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s career-high 34 points leads Vols past Texas

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — No. 21 Tennessee picked up its first SEC win of the season, taking down Texas 85-71. It marked Rick Barnes’ fifth-straight win against his former team.

It was the Ja’Kobi Gillespie show as he finished with a career-high 34 points and hit five three-pointers. The senior guard also added three steals and finished 5-of-5 from the free throw line.

Four Vols finished with double-digit points. JP Estrella scored 11. Jaylen Carey picked up 11 and DeWayne Brown added 10 points.

Tennessee got on the board first with a Brown dunk. Texas responded with a layup to tie the game at two a piece, but the Vols went on a quick 6-0 run to take a 8-2 lead. That run included four points from freshman Nate Ament, two of which came from the free throw line after the rookie struggled against Arkansas (5-of-11).

However, the Longhorns then went on a 6-0 run of their own, taking their first lead of the game, 12-11. A few free throws from Carey and a Gillespie layup put the Vols back in front halfway through the first half.

Tennessee then took over, scoring the next 10 points to take a 28-17 lead. Gillespie quickly reached double digits with back-to-back layups and a triple.

However, Gillespie was just getting started. He hit back-to-back threes to give him 22 points at the end of the half. The point-guard finished 8-10 from the field and 3-of-4 from downtown in the opening frame.

Amari Evans, coming off a career-best performance against the Razorbacks, tipped in an Amaree Abram miss at the buzzer to give the Vols a 48-33 lead at the halftime break.

Tennessee continued its strong play in the second half, going on a 6-0 run out of the gate to pull ahead by 21 points and forcing Texas to call a timeout just 1:30 into the second frame.

The Vols extended the run to 8-0 with as Brown reached double-digit scoring on a layup, before the Longhorns scored their first bucket in over four minutes with a Camden Heide triple.

Tennessee then went cold and didn’t score for 2:53 before JP Estrella ended the drought with a dunk for his first points of the night. Back-to-back triples from Texas cut Tennessee’s lead to 10 points after leading by 22 earlier in the half.

However, the Vols responded with a Felix Okpara dunk on the feed from Gillespie. After 22 points in the first half, Gillespie was held scoreless for the first 10:23 of the second frame.

He scored his first points of the half on a pair of free throws to give Tennessee a 14-point advantage with 9:31 left in regulation.

Ament extended that lead to 17 after finishing a three-point play to give him 8 points. Gillespie hit his fourth triple of the night and added a jumper on the next possession to give him 31 points and Tennessee a 75-61 lead with 6:32 left on the clock.

Back-to-back dunks from Estrella have him 11 points as three Vols reached double digits in scoring. Carey quickly made it four Vols to reach that milestone as he hit a pair of free throws to give him 10 points.

Gillespie then drained his fifth three-pointer of the game to give him a new career-high in points with 34.

UP NEXT: The Vols head to Gainesville for a matchup with the reigning national champs, Florida, Saturday at noon.

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