Video: #18 Tennessee Shoots The Lights Out In Second Half To Down Ole Miss

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Grant Williams and Lamonte’ Turner scored 17 points each to lead five Tennessee players in double figures Saturday night as the 18th-ranked Volunteers trounced Mississippi 94-61 for their fifth straight victory.

The blowout enabled Tennessee (17-5, 7-3 SEC) to move into sole possession of second place in the Southeastern Conference. The Vols began the day in a three-way tie for second with No. 21 Kentucky and No. 23 Florida, which both lost Saturday.

Tennessee has won eight of its last nine games while Ole Miss (11-12, 4-6) has dropped five of its last six.

With eight games remaining in the regular season, Tennessee already has exceeded its 2016-17 win total. The Vols finished 16-16 last year.

Admiral Schofield had 15 points and 12 rebounds for Tennessee. Kyle Alexander scored 14 points and Jordan Bowden added 10 for the Vols.

In the second half, Tennessee scored 59 points while shooting 71.4 percent overall (20 of 28) and from 3-point range (10 of 14). Tennessee had 17 assists and just one turnover in the second half.

Bruce Stevens scored 16 points and Terence Davis added 13 for Ole Miss.

Ole Miss shuffled its lineup for this game, with 7-footer Dominik Olejniczak making his first start since Jan. 16 and forward Justas Furmanavicius starting for the first time since Dec. 31

The changes didn’t make much of a difference, as Ole Miss missed 10 of its first 11 shots and scored just three points in the first 5 ½ minutes of the game.

After trailing 35-25 at halftime, Ole Miss cut Tennessee’s lead to 35-32 by scoring the first seven points of the second half on a pair of putbacks by Stevens and Terence Davis’ 3-pointer, but Tennessee answered with a 9-0 run and stayed comfortably ahead the rest of the way.

That 9-0 spurt did include one scary moment for Tennessee.

Schofield appeared to hurt his right ankle while defending a 3-point attempt by Davis. He pounded his fist on the court in frustration a few times as he lay on the floor before walking slowly into the locker room.

But he ended up missing less than a minute of action before returning to the game and helping Tennessee pull away.

BIG PICTURE

Ole Miss: The Rebels have struggled in SEC competition whenever leading scorer Deandre Burnett hasn’t been on top of his game. Burnett had just seven points and shot 2 of 13 Saturday while going scoreless in the second half. Burnett has averaged 20.8 points in Ole Miss’ four SEC wins. He missed one of the Rebels’ six SEC losses and has averaged just 9.8 points in the others.

Tennessee: The Vols are on a roll heading into a two-game road swing Tuesday at Kentucky and Feb. 10 at Alabama. But this Tennessee team has played well away from Thompson-Boling Arena so far. The Vols are 5-2 in true road games and went 2-1 in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.

UP NEXT

Ole Miss hosts Missouri on Tuesday.

Tennessee is at No. 21 Kentucky on Tuesday.