Tennessee beat Georgetown by a score of 90-78 in an exciting back-and-forth game. With the win, Tennessee advances to the finals of the Old Spice Classic to face either Maryland or Gonzaga.
Before the game, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl had said that the Vols would have to hit a lot of three-pointers to get past a strong Georgetown defense, and they did just that.
Cameron Tatum led the Vols in three-pointers making five out of his six attempts, and Tennessee finished 10-15 from behind the arc.
Tatum, however was not Tennessee's leading scorer as Tyler Smith led the Vols with 21 points.
This semifinal game had numerous runs and lead changes. Lucky enough for Tennessee though, they had the last big run, going 23-6 at one point late in the second half.
Georgetown started off the game strong leading 14-6 led by Greg Monroe who had six early points, but Tennessee regained its composure and tied the game back up at 14 apiece with 13:35 to go in the first half.
Tennessee and Georgetown stayed pretty close once again, until Tennessee went on a 7-0 run, which included a highlight dunk by freshman Emanuel Negedu.
The two teams stayed pretty even up until the end of the half as the Volunteers out of Tennessee led the Hoyas from Georgetown, 39-37.
Tennessee forward Wayne Chism picked up two early fouls which put him with four fouls just under four minutes into the half. He had been an impact inside, but he had to sit out for over 12 straight minutes.
During that time, the Hoyas led by as much as eight points, and they kept a firm lead for most of the 12 minutes that Chism was out.
Tennessee managed to keep the game within reach though, as the Vols went on a run to put them up by six just before Wayne Chism, who finished with nine points and six rebounds, came back in the game.
Give a lot of credit to Cameron Tatum, as he shined at the end of the game by scoring all of 14 points in the last six minutes to bring the Vols to victory.
Tatum knocked down four nice three-pointers within that period of time, and also had a highlight, breakaway dunk.
The Volunteers pretty much cruised on to victory from there, finishing with a big blocked shot by Emanuel Negedu as time expired.
Another player who played an important role in the victory for Tennessee was junior college transfer Bobby Maze.
Maze finished with three impact steals, nine assists, and 14 points that included two important three-pointers.
The main reason that Tennessee was able to pull off the important win against Georgetown was that they made the Hoyas play their type of game.
Georgetown is known as a low-scoring, defensive based team, and Tennessee is a high-scoring, offensive based team.
The two teams scored a total of 168 points, and that tends to favor high-scoring teams just as it did on Black Friday.
Tennessee will advance to the finals of the Old Spice Classic, and the Vols hope to win their championship game at 7:30 on Sunday night.
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