KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team started its 2025-26 regular season campaign with a 76-61 win over Mercer.
Freshman forward Nate Ament, in his collegiate debut, paced a balanced scoring attack with a game-best 19 points for No. 18/17 Tennessee (1-0) at Food City Center, where the program is now 36-3 in home openers.
After a sluggish start, the Volunteers rattled off eight straight points in 2:18 to jumpstart an extended 21-6 surge over 8:50 to take a 25-14 lead with 5:31 on the first-half time. They held Mercer (0-1) without a made field goal for a span of 7:14, forcing eight consecutive misses from the floor.
Tennessee pushed its margin as high as 14 in the opening half and took a 12-point edge, 33-21, into the locker room. It limited the Bears to just 21.2 percent (7-of-33) shooting in the opening 20 minutes, including a 5.9 percent (1-of-17) clip from beyond the arc. At the other end, the home team shot 51.6 percent (16-of-31) and rebounded eight of its 15 misses, with five by junior forward Jaylen Carey.
The Volunteers continued their strong defense in the second half, holding Mercer without a made field goal for 4:10, as the visitors missed five attempts in a row. A 7-0 run in 80 seconds during that stretch pushed the margin to a then-game-high 19 points, 46-27, with 15:13 to go.
Tennessee extended its lead up to 23, but Mercer then stopped its 3-point skid, hitting three in a row after a 2-of-25 start. Two of those came during a 10-2 run in 1:45 that helped the Bears trim their deficit to a baker’s dozen, 62-49, with 5:40 on the timer.
Mercer never got any closer the rest of the way and the Volunteers extended the advantage as high as 19 before finishing with a 15-point decision.
In addition to leading all scorers, Ament pulled down nine rebounds to finish one shy of notching a double-double. The Manassas, Va., native shot 6-of-11 from the field.
Redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella totaled a career-high 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting in his return to action after missing the final 35 games of last season with a left foot injury. He also grabbed five rebounds to tie a career best.
Junior forward Jaylen Carey had eight points and a game-leading 10 rebounds in his first action as a Volunteer. Fellow Tennessee newcomer Ja’Kobi Gillespie, a senior guard, matched Carey’s point total and paced all players with six assists, one fewer than Mercer’s entire total.
Junior guard Baraka Okojie led the Bears with 15 points despite shooting 3-of-13 from the field, as he made all eight of his free-throw attempts. Redshirt junior center Armani Mighty scored 14 points and graduate guard Zaire Williams added 10 before fouling out.
Despite making its final four 3-point attempts of the night, Mercer finished with a 20.7 percent (6-of-29) ledger from beyond the arc. It also logged just a 29.9 percent (20-of-67) mark from the field despite hitting eight of its last 15 tries.
The Volunteers finished with a commanding 54-32 edge in the rebounding column, as well as a 44-22 tally in paint points and a 32-14 count in bench points. The 54 rebounds marked the team’s highest total Dec. 7, 2022.
Tennessee continues play Saturday at 3 p.m. when it hosts Northern Kentucky, live on SEC Network+ 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
• Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes now owns 837 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 improved to 36-3 (.923) all-time in home openers at Food City Center, dating to its opening in 1987-88, including 33-1 (.971) in their last 34 such contests and 10-1 (.909) under Barnes.
• Excluding the capacity-reduced COVID-19 campaign in 2020-21, Tennessee is now averaging 16,859 fans across 38 home openers at Food City Center, after 18,559 attended Monday’s game.
• Tennessee upped its record to 5-4 in its series against Mercer, including 4-2 at home, after notching its fourth straight win in the series, which began in 1913.
• The Volunteers improved to 101-17 all-time versus the current SoCon membership, while Barnes increased his mark to 27-1.
• The following nine Volunteers made their official Tennessee debuts: Ament, Carey, Gillespie, senior guard Amree Abram, freshman forward DeWayne Brown II, sophomore guard Ethan Burg, freshman guard Amari Evans, freshman guard Troy Henderson and freshman guard Clarence Massamba.
• Of those nine individuals, six made their collegiate debuts: Ament, Brown, Burg, Evans, Henderson and Massamba.
• Tennessee’s first points of the 2025-26 season came at the 17:52 mark on an offensive rebound putback layup by Carey.
• The Volunteers’ 54 rebounds surpassed their highest total from the 2024-25 campaign, which was 51 on Jan. 4, 2025, versus Arkansas.
• Tennessee last had 54-plus rebounds against Eastern Kentucky on Dec. 7, 2022, when it pulled down 56.
• The Volunteers had two players with five-plus assists, as Burg notched five, a feat they achieved four times in 2024-25.
• In the first half alone, Estrella set a new career high in made field goals (four) and tied his career high in points (eight), the latter of which came on Nov. 13, 2024, versus Montana and the former of which he had both in that game and on Dec. 5, 2023, against George Mason.
• Estrella’s five rebounds matched the career high he set on Nov. 9, 2024, at Louisville, with that his only prior instance of grabbing four-plus.
• Carey’s five offensive rebounds marked the seventh time in his career he reached that number, including just the second in non-conference competition.
• Carey logged double-digit rebounds for the seventh time in his career, including the third in non-conference play.
• Making his first collegiate start, sophomore guard Bishop Boswell also made his first 3-pointer and set new career bests in points (five) and rebounds (eight), the latter of which vastly eclipsed his prior high of three set Dec. 14, 2024, at Illinois.
• Additionally, Boswell, who notched his first collegiate blocked shot, saw 16:32 of action to set another career best, surpassing his previous top mark of 11:12 at Florida on Jan. 6, 2025.
• Ament is the first Tennessee freshman to record 15-plus points since Julian Phillips had 18—the same total as Ament—on Jan. 17, 2023, at Mississippi State.
