The Vols continued to mature as they closed out an improving Tennessee State squad in the final two minutes.
Tennessee played from behind for much of the second half, but absolutely shut down TSU in the final minutes of the game to pull away in the last tune-up before the Vols start conference play. A game Tigers squad built leads of 47-40 and 57-51 as TSU tried to continue it's hot start, but the Vols out-rebounded, out-shot, and out-fought their opponents over the last three minutes of the ball game.
Kevin Punter stuffed the stat sheet against Tennessee State, finishing with 23 points on 7-10 shooting from the field, making four three-pointers, and hitting 5-of-5 from the charity stripe.