KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team withstood a valiant comeback effort from visiting LSU for a 73-63 victory Saturday night at a sold-out Food City Center.
Freshman forward Nate Ament led the way with a game-high 22 points for Tennessee (18-7, 8-4 SEC) in a decision that made head coach Rick Barnes the ninth person ever to win 250 games at two Division I schools.
Early in the first half, the Volunteers held LSU (14-11, 2-10 SEC) without a field goal for 6:10, forcing nine consecutive misses and not allowing a point for 3:26. During that span, they went on an 8-0 run in just 1:57 to take a 10-point edge, 17-7, with 11:22 on the timer.
Tennessee extended the margin to a game-best dozen, 31-19, with 4:44 left before the break on a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Ethan Burg, who already had eight points on 3-of-3 shooting at that time after not scoring since Dec. 30. However, LSU bounced back from a 4-of-20 start from the floor to make five field goals in a row and get its deficit down to 35-29, just 39 ticks before the break.
The score held steady the rest of the session and the Volunteers took that six-point lead into the locker room, aided by a 13-of-26 (50.0 percent) clip from the field.
LSU opened the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the score, en route to pushing its hot-shooting stretch to 9-of-10. That helped the Tigers take their first lead of the night, 42-41, with 15:35 remaining. They twice extended their margin to three, as the field-goal stretch reached 11-of-14.
Tennessee, though, countered with a 15-4 surge—it ended with eight points in a row—over 3:51 to go in front by eight, 58-50, with 9:28 to go. The advantage reached nine multiple times, but LSU again chipped away, this time trimming it to four, 64-60, with 4:48 left.
The Volunteers responded by scoring nine of the final 12 points, the last five of which came on free throws by Ament in the closing 87 seconds, to earn the double-digit victory. Tennessee forced the Tigers into misses on each of their last seven attempts from the floor, as they did not make a shot in the last 4:48.
Along with his ninth 20-point showing of the year, Ament pulled down a co-game-high nine rebounds, tied for his second-most as a collegian. He went 10-of-11 at the free-throw line, marking his second time with double-figure makes.
Redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella notched 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, plus matched Ament with nine boards. Senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie added 12 points and a game-best six assists, while Burg finished with eight points to tie his second-highest total as a collegian.
Freshman guard Jalen Reece co-led LSU with a career-high 15 points, finishing 3-of-5 from 3-point range and hitting all four of his free throws. He also paced the Tigers with four assists.
Fifth-year Marquel Sutton matched him with 15 points and tied for the game lead with nine rebounds. Graduate forward Pablo Tamba had 13 points, while junior forward Michael Nwoko added 10.
Tennessee, which led for 34:22 and trailed for only 3:26, ended the night with a commanding 45-24 edge on the glass, including a 16-8 tally on the offensive end. That helped lead to a 22-4 margin in second-chance points and a 34-18 tally in paint points.
The victors held LSU to a 21-of-55 (38.2 percent) clip from the field, while shooting 25-of-54 (46.3 percent) at the other end.
Tennessee plays a second consecutive home game Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Oklahoma, live on ESPN2 from Food City Center.
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 854 victories in his career, passing John Calipari for sole possession of first place among all active Division I head coaches and for ninth all-time (min. 10 years in Division I).
• In his 11-year tenure at Tennessee, Barnes now possesses 250 wins, as he improved to 250-116 (.683) at the helm of the Volunteers.
• Barnes is the ninth coach (third active) ever to win 250-plus games at two Division I schools, joining Dana Altman (active), Fran Dunphy, Lou Henson, Bob Huggins, Jim Larrañaga, Kelvin Sampson (active), Eddie Sutton and Roy Williams.
• The Volunteers notched their fourth regular season sellout of 2025-26, alongside the Dec. 16 outing against Louisville, the Jan. 17 game versus Kentucky and the Jan. 31 contest against Auburn.
• The 21,678 fans in the arena Saturday tied for the fourth-highest single-game attendance of the season thus far in college basketball, matching Tennessee’s games versus Louisville, Kentucky and Auburn.
• Tennessee now has 28 sellouts over the last five seasons—four in 2025-26, eight in 2024-25, eight in 2023-24, five in 2022-23 and three in 2021-22—and owns a 23-5 ledger in those games, including an 18-3 mark since Feb. 15, 2023.
• The Volunteers improved to 41-16 all-time in Food City Center sellouts, including 36-14 since the 2007-08 capacity reduction and 30-8 under Barnes.
• Tennessee is now 99-35 all-time when playing in front of 20,000-plus fans at Food City Center, including 40-11 in Barnes’ tenure, with 36 of the latter 51 over the past five seasons (2021-26).
• The Volunteers donned “Dark Mode” uniforms Saturday, their fourth time (3-1) wearing black in program history, alongside a Dec. 3, 2024, home win over Syracuse; a Feb. 8, 2025, road victory at Oklahoma; and a Dec. 2, 2025, road setback at Syracuse.
• Tennessee improved to 70-50 in its all-time series with the Tigers, now owning a mark of 20 games over .500.
• LSU is now the eighth different school—all are in the SEC—Tennessee has defeated 70-plus times in program history.
• Tennessee increased its winning streak against LSU to five in a row, with four wins by 10-plus, after dropping the prior four series contests.
• Of the last 20 (Tennessee is 13-7) series meetings—that extends to March 11, 2010—16 of them (Tennessee is 11-5) have been determined by double figures, with 10 by 14-plus, six by 18-plus and four by 20-plus, with the average margin of victory across that span sitting at 13.4 points per game.
• For the 21st time in the last 22 series matchups—that dates to Jan. 28, 2009—the final margin was greater than four points.
• Tennessee upped its record to 16-13 (13-12 SEC) all-time on Valentine’s Day, including 9-5 (8-4 SEC) on its home court.
• Saturday marked just the sixth (6-0) regular season game Tennessee has played in the last six seasons (2020-26) during which it was unranked in the AP Poll, alongside a 65-54 home win over Florida on March 7, 2021; a 79-73 road win at Alabama on Jan. 24, 2026; an 86-85 overtime road win at Georgia on Jan. 28, 2026; a 77-69 home win over Auburn on Jan. 31, 2026; and a 73-64 road win at Mississippi State on Feb. 11, 2026.
• Tennessee has logged double-digit offensive rebounds in 24 of 25 games this year, with 15-plus in 16 outings, 17-plus nine times and 20-plus on five occasions, with a high of 26.
• The Volunteers have grabbed at least 35 total boards in 22 of 25 contests, with 40-plus in 16, 42-plus in 15, 45-plus in 13 and 50-plus in six, with a top tally of 60.
• Through 25 outings thus far, Tennessee has amassed 13-plus assists on 22 occasions, with 17-plus in 16 games, 20-plus in six and 23-plus in four.
• Across its 25 games this season, Tennessee has played just two that did not feature a double-digit lead for either side, including only seven that did not include a 14-point margin one way and 11 that did not have a 23-point lead at any time.
• In the 200 minutes of action over their last five games, the Volunteers have trailed for a total of just 9:25.
• Over the first 12 minutes of the contest, the Tigers connected on just three of their 17 field-goal attempts.
• In between its 3-of-17 start and its 0-of-7 finish, LSU registered a 17-of-31 field-goal ledger the rest of the contest.
• Burg registered his first points in SEC competition on a layup with 13:08 on the first-half clock and then knocked down a pair of 3-pointers later in the frame.
• The three made field goals for Burg tied the career high he set in a Nov. 17 game versus Rice, while his 18 minutes trailed only the 24 he played versus the Owls.
• Ament scored 16-plus points for the 17th time this season, including reaching that number for the 10th outing in a row.
• Ament now owns nine 20-point performances this season, six of which have come in the last nine contests.
• The other time Ament connected on double-digit free throws was in a 12-of-15 showing Jan. 31 versus Auburn.
• Ament took double-figure free-throw attempts for the sixth time, with his 11 shots matching his second-highest count.
• Estrella finished just one rebound shy of a double-double for the third time Tennessee’s last six contests.
• Estrella scored in double figures for the fifth time in the last six games after owning eight such performances previously in his career.
