Lamonte Turner scored 17 points and had six assists, Yves Pons and Jalen Johnson had career highs of 15 and eight points respectively, and four players had double-figures to lead Tennessee basketball to its season-opening win over the UNC Asheville Bulldogs. Rick Barnes’s fifth team led by 25 at one point but only finished with a 78-63 win.
Barnes used the same starting lineup he had in last week’s exhibition game after the NCAA denied the eligibility waiver for Uros Plavsic, with John Fulkerson playing center and then four guards on the court. Those guards were Turner, Pons, Jordan Bowden and Josiah-Jordan James.