Tennessee lost on Friday night to Florida State while VCU lost to Purdue, setting up a pretty competitive third place game in the Emerald Coast Classic.
The nation’s 17th and 20th ranked teams looked very even early on. Tennessee started much better than they did during Friday’s contest, keeping pace with a talented VCU squad. After ten minutes of play, the score was even at 20.
That’s when the first real break of the game came. Jalen Johnson nailed a contested three, then the Vols rattled off three more buckets in the paint, extending an early lead to 29-21.