Jordan Gainey scored on a driving layup as time expired and finished with a career-high 23 points as No. 1 Tennessee extended its season-opening winning streak to 10 games, beating Illinois 66-64 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
After Illinois tied the game at 64 on the second of two free throws by Kasparas Jakucionis with 5.7 seconds left, Gainey took control. The Vols’ senior guard inbounded the ball to Igor Milicic, got it back and raced three-quarters the length of the court and scored over Jakucionis as time ran out.<\/p>\n
Chaz Lanier scored 17 points for Tennessee before fouling out with 3:42 left. Milicic had 14 rebounds and a key steal and dunk with 1:32 remaining that put the Vols up 64-62.<\/p>\n
Tennessee has won its first 10 games in a season for the first time in 25 years.<\/p>\n
Jakucionis scored 22 points for Illinois (7-3). Tre White had 11 points and Kylan Boswell and Will Riley added 10 apiece.<\/p>\n
Tennessee led 31-30 at halftime and finished 20 of 28 from the line. Illinois hit 30 of 36 free throw tries.<\/p>\n
Tennessee: The Vols should retain their No. 1 spot in the AP poll with the win.<\/p>\n
Illinois: The Illini failed to win the rebounding battle for the first time this season, trailing 42-37.<\/p>\n
Tennessee hadn\u2019t trailed by more than three points this season before falling behind 8-0 in the first half. The Vols rallied and moved ahead at 18-17.<\/p>\n
Tennessee is 9-1 in games in which they are ranked No. 1 in coach Rick Barnes\u2019 10 seasons and is 10-2 all-time. Illinois fell to 3-23 all-time vs. No. 1-ranked teams.<\/p>\n
Tennessee hosts Western Carolina on Tuesday. Illinois takes on Missouri on Dec. 22 in St. Louis.<\/p>\n
The Vols’ dramatic win over Illinois extends their season-opening winning streak to 10 games, a feat they haven’t achieved in 25 years. The team’s senior guard, Jordan Gainey, scored a career-high 23 points, including the game-winning layup at the buzzer. The Vols will look to continue their winning streak against Western Carolina on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Q: How many games has No. 1 Tennessee won in a row?<\/p>\n
A: 10 games<\/p>\n
Q: How many points did Jordan Gainey score in the game?<\/p>\n
A: 23 points<\/p>\n
Q: What is Tennessee’s record in games in which they are ranked No. 1?<\/p>\n
A: 9-1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No. 1 Tennessee Escapes at Buzzer for Dramatic Win over Illinois Jordan Gainey scored on a driving layup as time expired and finished with a career-high 23 points as No. 1 Tennessee extended its season-opening winning streak to 10 games, beating Illinois 66-64 on Saturday. After Illinois tied the game at 64 on the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8207","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/media.nbcchicago.com\/2024\/12\/GettyImages-2189335768.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&resize=1200%2C675&w=1200&resize=1200,675&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8209,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8207\/revisions\/8209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}