Tennessee Athletics
Dallas, TX – No. 3 seed Tennessee’s season came to an end on Saturday night, as the Vols suffered a heartbreaking loss to 11th-seeded Loyola-Chicago, 63-62, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Vols (26-9) made one last push at the end of the game, using an 8-0 run to take a 62-61 lead with 20 seconds remaining in the game, capped off by a three-point play from Grant Williams.
Clayton Custer knocked down a 10-foot jumper with 3.6 seconds left on the clock to regain the lead. Without any timeouts, Jordan Bone caught the ball near midcourt and shot a three that bounced of the rim as time expired.
The Big Orange had four players with double-digit scoring, as Admiral Schofield led the way with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Williams finished 14 points, while Bone chipped in 13 and Lamonte Turner had 10.
Tennessee was hot out of the gates, opening the game on a 15-6 run that was capped off by a steal from Schofield, who took it the length of the court for a dunk. He had 11 of the points during the run that concluded at the 15:37 mark as the Ramblers were forced to call a timeout.
Loyola-Chicago responded with a 23-10 swing after the timeout to take a 29-25 lead into halftime. UT struggled to connect on the offensive end of the floor, hitting only four of its final 18 shots in the half to 38 percent (10-of-26) for the period.
Schofield was forced to sit out for the majority of the period after picking up two fouls early on in the frame and was unable to be a factor during Loyola’s run.
UT was unable to consistently stop the Ramblers (30-5) on the offensive end of the floor, as LUC shot 50 percent (22-of-44) from the field in the game.