PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — — Santiago Vescovi scored 20 points and had six rebounds to help No. 22 Tennessee take down No. 3 Kansas 64-50 in the 2022 Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis championship game at the Imperial Arena here in Nassau, Bahamas on Friday (25).
Vescovi made five 3-pointers in a very strong offense performance for the Volunteers (5-1), who dominated the glass, 45-27, incliding grabbing 30 rebounds at the defensive side of the court en rout to snapping the Jayhawks’ 17-game winning streak.
“We know if you can’t stop the man in front of you, then you’ll have no shot at winning the game,” Vols’ Zakai Zeigler said: “We just like to play defense, and we just happen to be good at it.”
Zeigler scored 11 of his 14 total points in the second half , while Tyreke Key added 10 points in the win for Tennessee to win its fourth in a row since losing to Colorado, despite playing without the team’s leading scorer Josiah-Jordan James who was out with knee soreness.
Jalen Wilson and Joseph Yesefu each scored 14 points to lead the Jayhawks (6-1), who shot 28.6% in the first half and ended the game shooting just 32% overall.
“I feel like if we were able to get them out of place and not just have them standing there, waiting to contest a layup, that could’ve gave us some better chances at finishing at the rim,” Wilson said.
Kansas head coach Bill Self added, “We played a team tonight that was older and more mature and obviously played stronger and tougher. “We didn’t handle the situation near as well as what I would hope a poised team would.”
Kansas was held to just 9 of 25 from the field in the second half.
“You can be a good defensive team but if you can’t be a great one if you give them second and third shots,” Volunteers coach Rick Barnes said.
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