Tennessee blown out by Duke in Exhibition matchup

Tennessee went east to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night and got absolutely dismantled by the Duke Blue Devils. In their final exhibition matchup of the preseason, Tennessee flat out didn’t show up against the No. 2 ranked Blue Devils, falling behind early and eventually losing by 39 points.

It may have not even been that close.

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“Really disappointed, and I told Jon (Scheyer), I’m sorry we didn’t give him a better challenge tonight,” Rick Barnes said after the game. “We know we’ve got a lot going on with our program in terms of having so many young guys starting from scratch, but we’re still looking to see what we can find in terms of a group of guys that are going to compete.”

Duke came out firing and connecting, putting the pressure on Tennessee early. The Volunteers were coming off of a loss to Xavier last week in Knoxville, trying to put a game that got away from them late behind them. No such thing was done though, as Duke ran out to a staggering 27-4 lead early on. The Volunteers couldn’t hit an open shot, and certainly couldn’t defend Duke’s ball movement.

Open look after open look went down for the Blue Devils as the lead continued to swell. Making matters worse in that opening stretch was Tennessee guard Terrence Hill Jr. going down with an ankle injury. He would not return, and was later seen with crutches on the bench.

Competitively, the game was over before halftime. Duke took a 24 point lead into the break and would go on to win the second half, 49-34. Dai Dai Ames lead the way scoring for Tennessee with 19 points. Juke Harris scored just ten points on 2-10 shooting from the field. Jalen Haralson was only able to add six points and three rebounds.

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Obviously Hill was dealing with an injury, but outside of Ames, Tennessee’s big ticket transfer portal additions simply didn’t deliver in Durham.

“Honestly, I think some players just don’t know what it takes yet to get it done,” Barnes said. “That’s why it’s been great to play a really good…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/tennessee-blown-duke-exhibition-matchup-120743245.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-21 12:07:00

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