SANTIAGO VESCOVI

Santiago Vescovi scored 18 points and Tennessee pounded Longwood 88-56 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, showing exactly why it felt it deserved better than a No. 3 seed.

Santiago Vescovi scored 17 points and Josiah-Jordan James had 16 points and 10 rebounds to help ninth-ranked Tennessee beat Texas A&M 65-50 to claim its first men’s SEC basketball tournament title in 43 years.

Freshman guard Zakai Zeigler, whose family was left homeless by a fire in New York City last weekend, made two key free throws in the final seconds to help No. 13 Tennessee hold off No. 14 Arkansas 78-74.

Santiago Vescovi scored 14 points and Zakai Zeigler had 11 of his 13 points in the second half to lead No. 17 Tennessee to a 67-62 victory over No. 3 Auburn.

Freshman TyTy Washington Jr. scored a career-high 28 points, Sahvir Wheeler returned from injury to add 21 points and No. 18 Kentucky shot a season-high 68% to blow out No. 22 Tennessee 107-79.

John Fulkerson had 24 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 19 Tennessee overpowered No. 6 Arizona early and held on for a 77-73 win, giving the Wildcats their first loss.

Sixth-ranked Arizona begins one of the toughest two-week runs in college basketball on Wednesday night, when the Wildcats head to Knoxville to face No. 19 Tennessee in one of this week’s marquee nonconference matchups.

Jermaine Samuels scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as No. 5 Villanova eased to a 71-53 win over No. 17 Tennessee Saturday in the opening round of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament in Connecticut.

6 Alabama rallied from a big deficit in the final 17 minutes to beat Tennessee 73-68 Saturday in the SEC Tournament semifinals. The Volunteers trailed 69-68 when Davonte Gaines missed two foul shots with 25 seconds left. Yves Pons’ 3-pointer got Tennessee within 69-68 with 41.4 seconds left, but Quinerly added two free throws and Ellis two more with 3.7 seconds left to seal a tense game. Alabama: The Crimson Tide have thrived from long distance all season and weren’t about to change, even without Primo. It didn’t start well but ended better as Ellis hit a big 3 to help the Tide finish 7 of 28.

18 Tennessee never trailed Saturday in beating 15th-ranked Kansas 80-61 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. This was just Tennessee's second win all-time against Kansas in six games. David McCormack led the Jayhawks with 17 points, Marcus Garrett added 15 and Jalen Wilson had 10. Kansas shot only 7 of 26 through the first 20 minutes and kept from being blown out by hitting 11 of 12 at the free throw line. Tennessee: The Vols have proven they can play stingy defense, and they dominated on the boards 38-23, scoring 14 second-chance points.

The Crimson Tide (7-3, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) turned a one-point halftime lead into a double-digit advantage midway through the second behind Petty’s trio of 3s and two more long-range makes by Joshua Primo. Primo and Herbert Jones finished with 11 points, and Jahvon Quinerly scored 10. Tennessee (7-1, 1-1) struggled from the field the entire game, hitting 21 of 66 shots (32%). Alabama's 31-29 lead at the break happened with the Crimson Tide shooting 39% (12 of 31), while Tennessee struggled shooting 33% (11 of 33). UP NEXTAlabama: The Crimson Tide will be home Tuesday to face Florida, which beat LSU on Saturday.