Tennessee escapes Georgia in overtime 86-85

The Tennessee Volunteers picked up a second straight SEC road win over a team who should be going to the NCAA Tournament. The Vols fought, scratched, and clawed their way to an 86-85 overtime win over the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday night in Athens.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie led Tennessee with 21 points. Nate Ament added 19, and Bishop Boswell posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. J.P. Estrella had some huge baskets and rebounds, posting 17 points and nine boards.

The Vols were slow getting things started on the offensive end. They took an early 10-8 lead with in the first four minutes, but they didn’t hit the 20 point mark until the under eight timeout. The Bulldogs took their biggest lead of the game at 30-23 shortly after, but Tennessee slowly cut the margin to four. Georgia’s Marcus Millender hit a running midrange shot at the horn for a 34-28 lead going into half.

Ament and Gillespie finally started to get heated up early in the second half. Three midrange shots from Ament and two three pointers from Gillespie got Tennessee within three, and a Boswell three from the top of the key finally evened things up again at 45. The teams seesawed for a bit before Tennessee took a 59-57 lead on an Amari Evans three with nine minutes left.

Incredibly, despite this game going to overtime, Tennessee would never trail again. The Vols built leads of 66-60 and 70-64 down the stretch, but the Bulldogs would answer with a pair of scores to turn away the breathing room each time.

With 19 seconds left in regulation and Tennessee up one, Gillespie pulled down a rebound and was fouled. However, he made just one of two free throws. Sure enough, Millender drove for the game-tying layup with 3.6 seconds left. Gillespie got off a floater at the horn, but it bounced off the rim.

Estrella got Tennessee started in overtime with baskets on Tennessee’s first two possessions, and the Vols pushed their lead to 82-76. With 24 seconds left and Tennessee up 83-80, Georgia’s Kanon Catchings missed a three, and Boswell made two free throws for an 85-80 lead. Millender hit a step back three to keep the Dawgs alive at 85-83.

After Okpara took the inbounds pass and made one of two free throws, Georgia had a little over 11 seconds left down three. However, after dribbling the time down and passing the ball around, it ended up in the hands of Millender, who inexplicably drove it to the basket and laid it in with 0.6 seconds left to make it Tennessee 86, Georgia 85. Estrella took the inbound pass after a timeout, and it was over.

A strange ending to a game Tennessee absolutely needed to win, and one they deserved to win with a dominating 52-27 rebounds edge.

Up next for Tennessee is Auburn on Saturday in Knoxville at 8:30 pm ET on ESPN.