KNOXVILLE — There is nothing wrong with showing a little emotion on senior day.
Until the game tips off.
Tennessee couldn’t send out fifth-year senior guards Josiah-Jordan James, Dalton Knecht and Santiago Vescovi as winners Saturday afternoon, when No. 15 Kentucky invaded the Food City Center and halted the seven-game winning streak of the No. 4 Volunteers, 85-81. The Wildcats led by 14 points on multiple occasions before a late Tennessee run and were paced by 27 points apiece from Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard, who combined on 10-of-15 shooting from 3-point range.
Kentucky, which led for the game’s final 30 minutes, spoiled a career-best 40-point performance by Knecht.
“We were too emotional for sure,” James said. “I feel like everybody who started the game was not locked in, and it’s hard to be with everything that went on today affecting our last game. I can’t remember the last time I cried, and I really couldn’t contain myself with all that I’ve been through. I’m upset that we weren’t able to win, but I haven’t lost sight of what we were able to win.
“It’s really tough to win a regular-season championship. We wanted to get the job done today and weren’t able to, but I give Kentucky a lot of credit.”
Tennessee, which won its first outright Southeastern Conference title in 16 years with Wednesday night’s 66-59 win at South Carolina, will head into next week’s league tournament in Nashville with a 24-7 overall record and as the top seed with its 14-4 conference mark. Kentucky (23-8, 13-5) will be the No. 2 seed.
The Wildcats are now the league’s hottest team with five consecutive victories, which includes impressive triumphs at Auburn and now at Tennessee.
“These were two really good teams battling it out,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “The thing about Tennessee is that it doesn’t matter what the score is. They think they’re going to win. They were down nine, and then all of a sudden they’re figuring out how they can win. That’s a veteran team.
“We were trying some different things, but Knecht went absolutely bonkers on us.”
Consecutive 3-pointers by Sheppard and Reeves doubled Kentucky’s six-point lead to 51-39 with 14:56 remaining, and after the Vols came away with no points following a technical foul on Calipari, Justin Edwards connected on a 3-pointer to make it 60-46 with 11:44 to play. Another Sheppard 3-pointer with 2:35 left had the Wildcats still in control at 80-69, but the Vols then went on a 12-4 run and got within 84-81 on two James free throws as 31 seconds remained.
Tennessee forced Kentucky into a 10-second violation to get the ball back, but with Knecht blanketed, James missed a 3-point try with 11 seconds to play and Rob Dillingham sunk a free throw as five remained left to clinch it.
“It was a wide-open shot, and we’ve made that shot,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said of the finish. “It probably ended up being a better look than what we would have gotten. It didn’t go down.”
James finished with eight points and 10 rebounds but was just 2-of-9 from the floor in his home finale, while Vescovi dished out four assists but wound up 0-for-5.
Edwards added 16 points for Kentucky and ignited a 10-2 run for the Wildcats with a pair of 3-pointers that provided them their first double-digit advantage at 28-18. At the half’s final media timeout, the Vols were shooting 5-of-27 for an 18.5% clip.
Tennessee trailed just 33-29 at the break and was very fortunate to do so given that James, Vescovi, Jonas Aidoo and Zakai Zeigler were a combined 2-of-17 from the floor. Zeigler was much better in the second half and finished with 17.
“I’ve said before that they’re the most explosive offensive team in the country,” Barnes said. “We were getting beat off the ball too much, and they made the right plays. John’s teams always get better this time of year, and they’re going to make shots even when you guard them, but early in the game they were scoring off broken plays, and I thought they were beating us to 50-50 balls.
“I told our guys after the game that we were way, way too emotional at the start, but we’ll learn from this game. Hopefully we’ll be in a lot bigger games as the season goes on.”
Odds and ends
Kentucky outscored Tennessee 38-5 in bench points. … Knecht is the second Vol to score 35 or more points five times in a season, with Ernie Grunfeld the first in 1976-77. … Former Tennessee football standout Trey Smith, who has two Super Bowl rings as a guard with the Kansas City Chiefs, was recognized during the first media timeout.
Baseball Vols roll
Tennessee set season highs for runs and hits Saturday afternoon in a 24-1 trouncing of Illinois that was delayed by rain at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The No. 8 Vols collected 20 hits as they improved to 15-1 with their 14th straight victory.
Reese Chapman drove in a career-high six runs with the help of a sixth-inning grand slam, while Blake Burke drove in four runs and Dylan Dreiling three. The Vols scored two or more runs in seven of the eight innings they came to the plate.
The Vols took a 2-0 lead into the second inning and scored six runs on two hits, four walks and an error. Two runs off wild pitches by the Fighting Illini (5-8) made it 5-0 before Dreiling’s three-run homer to center field provided the incredibly early nail in the coffin.
Drew Beam worked five innings, allowing one run on four hits while striking out five batters, to pick up the 20th win of his career.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.