No. 7 Vols are beaten by No. 1 Kansas in the Maui third-place match.
November 23 – On Wednesday afternoon, No. 1 Kansas defeated No. 7 Tennessee 69-60 behind a 17-point, 20-rebound double-double from Hunter Dickinson, who helped the team finish third in the highly competitive Maui Invitational in Honolulu.
For Kansas (5-1) after scoring a career-high 24 points against Marquette on Tuesday, Kevin McCullar Jr. added 14. With eight assists, Dajuan Harris Jr. led both teams.
Santiago Vescovi led Tennessee (4-2) in scoring for the first time this season with 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Despite scoring 13 points, Dalton Knecht, who had led the club in scoring in each of the previous games, only shot 4 of 17 from the field. For the Volunteers, Jordan Gainey added 13 points as well.
It was a very tightly contested first half featuring multiple lead changes and both teams spending over eight minutes with the lead. The teams went into halftime tied at 35.
Vescovi and Knecht had 13 and 10 points respectively for the Volunteers. Dickinson started to get in rhythm for Kansas toward the end of the half, totaling 10 points and 11 rebounds.
The start of the second half became more of the same with neither team pulling ahead. Toward the latter part of the half, both teams struggled to score, with Tennessee missing six of seven shots and Kansas going more than three minutes without scoring toward the under-8 media timeout.
However, Kansas would eventually pull ahead, going on a 6-0 run and making four consecutive shots, quickly taking a 10-point advantage with just over four minutes to play.
From there, Kansas would cruise to the win as Tennessee struggled to score, missing seven of eight shots for a stretch just before the final minute of the game.
Kansas leaves Honolulu most likely losing its top spot in the AP poll to either Purdue or Marquette. But the Jayhawks pick up a top-10 victory in what was arguably the strongest field in the tournament’s history.
