The University of Tennessee men's basketball team tallied an 83-78 win Friday night against Tennessee State at Food City Center.

No. 11/9 Tennessee (3-0) held the Tigers to 32.1 percent shooting, while junior guard Terrence Hill Jr., paced the team with 19 points.

The Volunteers missed six of their first eight shots and Tennessee State (1-3) claimed an 11-5 lead at the 13:09 mark. However, senior guard Dai Dai Ames rattled off a personal 8-0 run in just 1:17 seconds to put Tennessee on top by two exactly 100 seconds later. Ames had 11 of the team's 13 points at that time.

Tennessee State went back up by five, but the Volunteers responded to take a lead they would not relinquish. A pair of 7-0 runs—the first was exclusively by Hill and took 47 seconds, while the second was 55 ticks—sandwiched around two free throws by the visitors, who went 5:33 without a field goal and 2:51 without a point, made it 33-25 with 4:19 left in the stanza.

The margin remained eight in the closing seconds of the half, but Tennessee State senior forward Aaron Bradshaw hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to send the teams into the locker room with a 42-37 tally. The Volunteers held the Tigers to 10-of-36 (27.8 percent) shooting, but they had 11 offensive rebounds and shot 12-of-12 at the stripe.

Tennessee scored the initial five points after the break to take its first double-digit lead, 47-37, just 47 seconds into the action. The Tigers twice pulled within eight, but the second time the Volunteers countered with six straight points in 78 seconds to earn a 57-43 cushion with 12:56 to play.After shooting 14-of-60 through 32-plus minutes, Tennessee State made seven field goals in a row to claw its deficit down to seven, 73-66, with 3:38 left.

The Tigers did not get any closer until just 32 seconds remained on the clock, but the Volunteers held strong for the victory.In addition to his team-leading point total, Hill topped the Volunteers with five assists, as well as shot 4-of-8 from 3-point range.

Sophomore guard Jalen Haralson notched 15 points, four assists and a 7-of-10 clip from the free-throw line.Sixth-year guard Tyler Lundblade logged 14 points and shot a perfect 9-of-9 at the stripe, good for his most makes in a game as a collegian and the most makes without a miss by a Volunteer since Dec. 16, 2025.

Ames finished with 11 points, while junior guard Juke Harris had eight to go along with a game-best 10 rebounds.

Senior guard Ty-Laur Johnson led all players with both 22 points, eight of which came in the last 32 seconds, and seven assists. He matched Lundblade with a 9-of-9 free-throw clip, but Tennessee limited him to a 6-of-15 mark from the floor and forced him into four turnovers.

Sophomore guard Jayden Jones chipped in 13 points, while no other Tiger reached double figures.The Volunteers shot 10-of-28 (35.7 percent) from 3-point range, their most makes from beyond the arc since Dec. 21, 2025.At the other end, Tennessee allowed just an 8-of-30 (26.7 percent) mark from deep, as well as a 25-of-78 (32.1 percent) ledger overall.

Up next for the Volunteers is a top-15 showdown with fifth-ranked Michigan State, with action set for Tuesday at 9 p.m., live on ESPN2 from Food City Center.

Source: Yahoo Sports