Vols lean on dominant first half in win over Georgia Southern

Considering the gauntlet Tennessee has faced over the last month, Tuesday's match up with winless Georgia Southern felt out of place on the Vols' schedule.

Coming off of a win over a ranked Illinois team last Saturday, No. 12 Tennessee—which was 31.5-point favorites entering the game— jumped out to a commanding lead, which was enough to overcome a sluggish second half in a 74-56 win over the Eagles at Food City Center.

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Jonas Aidoo paced Tennessee (7-3) in scoring with a career-high points, topping his previous high of 17 against George Mason last week. The junior forward also grabbed 11 rebounds for a double-double.

Derrick Harris Jr. led Georgia Southern (0-10) with 13 points.

Tennessee shot 44.0% for the game but just 28.6% in the second half. The Vols won the boards, 49-39.

Aidoo scored on Tennessee's first possession and tallied its first 10 points as the defense suffocated Georgia Southern on the other end.

The Eagles went 0-for-5 from the field before their first field goal more than five minutes into the first half, but by that point, the rout was underway.

Josiah-Jordan James and Tobe Awaka were the first two players other than Aidoo to score with baskets off of offensive rebounds to up Tennessee's lead to 15-5.

Back-to-back scores from Jordan Gainey put the Vols ahead 30-8 inside of seven minutes. Aidoo set his new career-high on a goal tend that put his total at 19 points with less than six minutes remaining in the half.

Tennessee led comfortably at the intermission, but dominance gave way to a sloppy second half. Turnovers and stagnant offense allowed the Eagles to hang around.

The Vols shot just 25% from the field and were abysmal from 3-point range through 15 minutes of the half as Harris' 3-pointer cut Georgia Southern's deficit down to 13 with just under seven minutes remaining.

Knecht tallied Tennessee's first 3-pointer of the period on a corner shot to put the Vols back up 19 with four minutes, 53 seconds left. It was followed up by a Zakai Zeigler layup to pave the way for a strong close.

Gainey, Knecht and Awaka all finished with 7 points.

Barnes said following Tennessee's three-game stretch against three of the top bigs in college basketball that Aidoo could be as good as any of them.

He has been a key part of the Vols' offense through 10 games, including Tuesday night. Aidoo made an early statement in the opening minutes that Tennessee leaned on the rest of the way.

Aidoo not only led both teams in scoring in the first 20 minutes, his 21 points were as many as Georgia Southern scored in the period. He followed it up with an emphatic dunk to make way for an 8-point second half and lead Tennessee in scoring for the second time this season.

Tennessee jumps back into Power Six play on Saturday.

The Vols will get three days off before playing NC State in the Hall of Fame Series at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

The Wolfpack are currently 7-2 with wins over Vanderbilt and Boston College. They are coming off of a win over UT-Martin on Tuesday.

Tip-off is slated for 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

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