SEC Tournament: Tennessee moves on

by Barca Blog

Recap: [E3] Tennessee 59, [W6] LSU 49
AP - Wayne Chism had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Tennessee (No. 13 ESPN/USA Today, No. 15 AP) overcame its worst first half of the season to beat LSU 59-49 in the first round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday. Read More

Quotables
UT coach Bruce Pearl on their offensive struggles:
"LSU played zone on us the whole game, and it really slowed the tempo of the game down. We got some pretty good shots, but, you know, there's a reason that we are the last in the league in three-point percentage."

LSU's Tasmin Mitchell on what was working defensively:
"The zone always give Tennessee problems. They've never been a real good shooting team beyond the arc. So the zone was working. I feel like we played it okay, but we just didn't grasp it at the end of the game when we could have captured the game."

UT's Brian Williams on playing with something to prove:
"Not many people are granted a second opportunity, and that's what you got to do is take advantage of that. And Coach and the University gave me something that I'm blessed with, and I'm trying to take advantage of that so far."

LSU coach Trent Johnson on looking ahead to next season:
"This team's gotten better. The end result hasn't been what we all would like, but this team has gotten better. The key for us is to -- spring and summer has to be very productive. And that they don't forget the hard lessons that they learned this year."

Notes
*The Vols held LSU to just 49 points, the lowest by any of their SEC opponents this year. 

*Williams set a season high with 14 rebounds. Chism had his sixth double-double this season.

*Mitchell ended his LSU career just shy of reaching 2,000 points. He scored 10 points, concluding his career with 1,989.

Next Up
Tennessee will play West No. 2 seed Ole Miss in the quarterfinals Friday at 2:15 p.m. CT. For complete coverage of the tournament, go to SECsports.com.