Knecht’s 40 points not enough as Vols fall to Kentucky

KNOXVILLE — Dalton Knecht collected his first 40-point performance Saturday afternoon in his Food City Center finale for Tennessee, but it wasn’t enough in an 85-81 loss to Kentucky.

The sharp-shooting of Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard spoiled the home finales of Knecht, Josiah-Jordan James and Santiago Vescovi, with Reeves and Sheppard scoring 27 points apiece and combining on 10-of-15 shooting from 3-point range. The No. 4 Volunteers pulled within 84-81 of the No. 15 Wildcats on a pair of James free throws with 31 seconds remaining and then forced a 10-second violation to get the chance to tie, but James missed a 3-point try with 12 seconds remaining.

Rob Dillingham clinched the win by making a free throw with six seconds left.

Tennessee, which won its first outright Southeastern Conference regular-season championship 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 a 14-4 conference mark. Kentucky finished the regular season 23-8 and 13-5.

It was not a memorable swan song for James and Vescovi, who were a combined 0-for-9 in the first half. James finished with eight points and 10 rebounds but was just 2-of-9 from the floor, while Vescovi wound up 0-for-5.

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 Wildcats coach John Calipari, Justin Edwards connected on a 3-pointer to make it 60-46 with 11:44 to play.

The Wildcats maintained that 14-point lead on multiple occasions, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Knecht and Zakai Zeigler with 7:29 left got the Vols within 68-63 and got the crowd back in it.

Tennessee and Kentucky wound up splitting this season, with the Vols having won 103-92 in Lexington on Feb. 3.

A Reeves 3-pointer at the 10:03 mark of the first half gave Kentucky an 18-12 lead against a Tennessee team that was 3-of-17 shooting out of the gate. Consecutive dunks by Knecht and Jordan Gainey pulled the Vols within 18-16, but consecutive 3-pointers by Justin Edwards ignited a 10-2 run for the Wildcats that provided them a double-digit advantage at 28-18.

At the final media timeout of the first half, the Vols were shooting 5-of-27 for an 18.5% clip.

Edwards continued his hot shooting with another 3-pointer that gave Kentucky its largest first-half advantage at 31-20, but then Knecht got hot with a pair from long range, with the second of those pulling Tennessee within 31-27 and forcing Calipari to call a timeout with 1:14 before intermission.

Tennessee trailed just 33-29 at the break and was very fortunate to do so given that Aidoo, James, Vescovi and Zeigler were a combined 2-of-17 from the floor.

Baseball Vols roll

Blake Burke drove in four runs and Dylan Dreiling three to give Drew Beam an easy afternoon on the mound as No. 8 Tennessee humiliated Illinois 24-1 at a rain-soaked Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Vols, who improved to 15-1 with their 14th straight win, 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 made it 5-0 before Dreiling’s three-run homer to center field provided the incredibly early nail in the coffin.

Beam worked five innings, allowing one run on four hits while striking out five batters.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.