Terrence Hill Jr. scored 18 points and No. 11 Tennessee made a decisive 16-0 second-half run in routing Radford 70-47 on Monday night in Knoxville, Tenn.
After dropping three spots in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, the Volunteers (2-0) were tested early by the Big South school and led just 33-24 at halftime before turning it on in the second half.
Hill went 6-for-9 from the field, including 2-for-4 from distance, and sank all four free-throw attempts. He added three assists, three rebounds and two steals.
Dai Dai Ames tallied 13 points, and Jalen Haralson had 11 points, six rebounds and three steals. DeWayne Brown II grabbed 12 boards.
The Highlanders (0-3) received 16 points from Jordyn Kee. Warren Keel Jr. had 13 points, but the club shot just 26.2% (16-for-61). Cameron Jackson had a team-high eight rebounds.
Frederik Erichsen, Radford’s leading scorer at 14 points per game entering Monday, was held scoreless.
Tennessee started slowly against the visitors, going until 2:31 into the game before Tyler Lundblade drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing for a 3-2 lead. Radford’s Tristan Gross answered with one of his own for a 5-4 edge at a media timeout.
Volunteers big man Miles Rubin’s four points and Troy Henderson’s bucket created a 16-12 gap, but the Highlanders hung in behind seven points from Keel.
The sloppy half of basketball ended with the Volunteers managing a 13-5 run for a 33-24 halftime advantage behind Hill’s 10 points.
The home side shot 46.2% from the floor but committed seven turnovers. Radford struggled to make 28.6% of its attempts and had 10 turnovers but actually outrebounded Tennessee 18-17 in a poorly played 20 minutes on both sides.
The Southeastern Conference team moved its lead to 42-27, the largest to that point, at 14:18 behind two free throws from Brown. Kee became the second Highlanders player to reach double figures with a trey to cut it to 46-36 with 12:31 left.
However, the Volunteers stepped up their offense and defense and put together a 16-0 run while holding Radford scoreless for 8:32. The Highlanders finally broke the drought when on Kee’s three-point play with 3:59 remaining.