KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team concluded its five-game, season-opening homestand Thursday night with an 89-60 victory over Tennessee State at Food City Center.
Senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie paced No. 20/17 Tennessee (5-0) with 17 points in a contest it led for all but 42 seconds and never trailed.
After the two teams split the opening baskets, the Volunteers went on an 11-0 run in just 1:58 to go ahead, 13-2, through three minutes. Senior guard Amaree Abram connected on three 3-pointers during that period, keying a 5-of-6 start from the field for the home team.
Tennessee conceded the next bucket, but then rattled off another 11-0 burst, this one over 6:19, to go ahead by 20 with 9:32 on the timer. That came during a stretch of 8:06 during which Tennessee State (2-3) went scoreless and missed 12 consecutive field-goal attempts.
The Volunteers expanded their lead as high as 26 on multiple occasions in the first frame and took a 22-point margin, 43-21, into the locker room. They shot 6-of-14 (42.9 percent) from long range while holding the Tigers to a 1-of-13 (7.7 percent) mark, including forcing misses on their first 10 attempts. Head coach Rick Barnes‘ team also forced 13 first-half turnovers, leading to a 15-3 edge in points off giveaways.
Tennessee pushed its lead to 30 for the first time with 14:14 on the timer, as a pair of free throws by freshman forward Nate Ament made it 62-32. The advantage reached 34 on multiple occasions before a 9-0 run in 2:13 by the Tigers trimmed it to 76-51 with 5:44 left.
The contest ended with the Volunteers ahead by 29, as the team registered its fourth straight win by at least 25 points.
Gillespie, who made all six of his 2-point attempts, co-led all players with five assists and had two steals. Ament, who went 7-of-8 at the stripe, finished with 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and a game-best four steals, with the latter mark a new high in his young career.
Abram finished with 15 points to match Ament, as he went 4-of-6 from the field and 4-of-4 at the line. Freshman forward DeWayne Brown II reached double figures for the first time as a collegian, producing 13 points behind a 7-of-8 tally on free throws. Senior forward Felix Okpara added 11 points and paced all competitors with eight rebounds.
Senior guard Aaron Nkrumah tallied a game-high 19 points and a co-game-best five assists for the Tigers. Tennessee held him to 5-of-16 shooting from the field, including a 1-of-8 mark beyond the arc, but he went 8-of-10 at the line. Redshirt senior guard Travis Harper II posted 17 points, while junior forward Antoine Lorick III had 12 points on perfect clips from the floor (3-of-3) and the line (5-of-5).
The Volunteers logged an assist on 20 of their 25 field goals, as well as shot a dazzling 31-of-35 (88.6 percent) on free throws, their first time surpassing 30 makes since Dec. 7, 2022. At the other end, they held Tennessee State to 18-of-56 (32.1 percent) shooting overall, including a 5-of-27 (18.5 percent) ledger on 3-pointers.
With its five-game homestand complete, Tennessee now heads to the Players Era Men’s Championship in Las Vegas, where its first game set for Monday at 1 p.m. ET against Rutgers, live on TNT and HBO Max from MGM Grand Garden Arena.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.
TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS POSTGAME NOTES
• Barnes now owns 841 victories in his career, remaining in sole possession of first place among all active Division I head coaches and in ninth place all-time (min. 10 years in Division I).
• The Volunteers remained undefeated all-time against Tennessee State, improving to 7-0 in a series that dates to Nov. 23, 1990.
• Tennessee’s seven wins over the Tigers are by an average of 19.9 points per game, with five of them by 20-plus.
• Barnes retained his perfect record versus OVC teams, as he is now 10-0 against such schools, all during his Tennessee tenure versus fellow in-state schools.
• The Volunteers improved to 36-7 (.837) against Volunteer State competition in the Barnes era, including 19-2 (.905) in their last 21 such outings.
• As announced prior to tip-off, redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella did not play due to a left knee injury sustained Monday against Rice.
• In addition, sophomore forward Bishop Boswell missed his third consecutive game, the last two of which are due to a left leg injury.
• Tennessee has now recorded 41 consecutive non-conference home victories, a streak that dates to Dec. 8, 2020, and spans six seasons.
• This is the second time in program history Tennessee has won over 40 non-conference home games in a row, per Elias Sports Bureau, alongside a 43-game streak from Dec. 7, 1940, to Dec. 10, 1949.
• The Tigers shot 6-of-28 (21.4 percent) in the opening stanza, with their six makes the fewest in a half by a Tennessee opponent this season, as the prior low was seven on two occasions.
• Tennessee has now allowed just 21 first-half points in two of its first five contests, as it also held Mercer to that figure before the break in the Nov. 3 season opener.
• The 22-point lead at the intermission marked the largest of the year thus far for the Volunteers, surpassing their prior best of 21, 52-31, in a Nov. 8 matchup with Northern Kentucky.
• The two teams combined for 43 fouls and 70 free-throw attempts in the contest, including 27 and 43 in the second half alone.
• Seven different Volunteers attempted multiple free throws and did not have multiple misses, as two went 7-of-8, three went 4-of-4 and two went 2-of-2.
• Tennessee last made 30-plus free throws on Dec. 7, 2022, when it went 31-of-41 against Eastern Kentucky.
• The last time the Volunteers attempted at least 35 free throws in a game was on March 14, 2025, when they shot 24-of-35 versus Texas in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals in Nashville, Tenn.
• After using four different starting lineups in the first four games of the season, Tennessee repeated an opening group for the first time Thursday night.
• Tennessee has produced 19-plus assists in all five games this season, including logging 20-plus in each of the last four.
• The Volunteers finished with fewer than 16 offensive rebounds (10) and/or fewer than 47 total rebounds (38) for the first time in 2025-26.
• Tennessee’s five wins in its season-opening homestand came by an average of 28.2 points per game, with all of them by 19-plus, four by 25-plus and three by 29-plus.
• The last time five Volunteers scored in double figures was in a Feb. 5, 2025, home victory over Missouri.
• Junior forward Jaylen Carey finished with four assists to tie his career high set on Dec. 21, 2024, versus Austin Peay, while at Vanderbilt.
• Carey also became the first Volunteer to foul out this season, collecting his fifth foul with 6:22 left in the contest for the third disqualification of his career.
• Brown amassed 18 total points across his first four collegiate outings, with a high of six recorded both Nov. 3 against Mercer and Nov. 8 versus Northern Kentucky.
• Abram scored 15-plus points for the 15th time in his career, including the first since Feb. 22, 2025, when he had 21 at Western Kentucky, while at Louisiana Tech.
• Ament recorded at least 15 points, six rebounds and two steals for the third time in his first five collegiate outings.
• Ament is the fifth SEC freshman—third in regulation—in the last 10 seasons (2016-26) to amass at least 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals in a game, joining South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles (March 9, 2024, in an overtime game at Mississippi State); Georgia’s Anthony Edwards (Feb. 26, 2020, in an overtime game at South Carolina); Florida’s Keyontae Johnson (March 15, 2019, versus LSU in the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn.); and Kentucky’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (March 15, 2018, versus Davidson in the NCAA Tournament in Boise, Idaho).
• In addition, Ament is the sixth Tennessee player—fifth in regulation—with that line over the past 20 years (2006-26), following Chaz Lanier (Dec. 17, 2024, versus Western Carolina); Zakai Zeigler (Feb. 10, 2024, at Texas A&M); Grant Williams (March 24, 2019, versus Iowa in an overtime game in the NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio); Admiral Schofield (Jan. 6, 2018, versus Kentucky); and Armani Moore (Feb. 20, 2016, versus LSU).
• Over the last 10 seasons (2016-26), only Gillespie and Zakai Zeigler (three times) have recorded at least 17 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals in a regulation game for the Volunteers, while just two others—Santiago Vescovi (Jan. 5, 2022, versus Ole Miss) and Grant Williams (March 24, 2019, versus Iowa in an NCAA Tournament game in Columbus, Ohio)—have even done it in an overtime affair.
