Big man Jarnell Stokes recorded his 15th double-double of the season — notching 20 points and 11 rebounds — as the Tennessee Volunteers (16-10, 7-6) defeated the Georgia Bulldogs (14-11, 8-5) by a 67-48 tally Wednesday evening at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Stokes was active down low and decisive with his post moves. He was aggressive on both ends of the floor, hit nine of his 13 shots and didn’t record a single foul. NOT ONE.
Teammate Josh Richardson was brief in his description of Stokes’ performance.
“Dominating,” Richardson said. “That is all I have to say.”
There was some criticism about Stokes’ lack of touches in the final minutes of the Missouri game, and Martin said Stokes did a better job of maintaining a high level of aggression for the duration of the contest against Georgia.
“The key is to always get him the ball,” Martin said. “It’s no different in any other game. It’s a combination of there were better opportunities of feeding the ball but also him posting aggressively. Again, you go back and watch film, watch as a team, he didn’t post as aggressively, especially in the last 11-12 minutes of the game, so it’s hard to get a guy if you don’t post aggressively, make yourself assertive, because even at that point, he wasn’t getting offensive rebounds, so you have some games where he’s not getting the ball in the post he’ll do a tremendous job of crashing that glass, but it’s always a focus for us as a team to get the ball inside.”
All together, four Vols scored in double figures as Antonio Barton scored 12, Jordan McRae scored 11 and Josh Richardson scored 10. Tennessee shot 47 percent from the field and turned the ball over just eight times.
Wednesday marked the first time Barton scored in double figures since the Auburn matchup on January 15th. Before Wednesday’s game, the senior guard was 5 for his last 31 attempts from 3-point range. Barton said his teammates kept their confidence in him, despite his recent cold streak.
“It felt kind of good,” Barton said. “They always tell me to keep shooting, I just knew it was going to fall once. I was putting up the shots I was just waiting for the right time for it to fall.”
The balanced scoring punch fueled the Vols on offense, but it was their defense that made the difference against Georgia on Wednesday. Tennessee held UGA to 34 percent shooting in the game, including a dismal 6-24 (25 percent) in the second half.
“I thought we battled, I thought we played hard,” Martin said. “Again, this is the type of team that will bring the action to you, they are not a team that will settle on the three-point line and just toss shots up. They will force the action, they will get to the rim.”
“I like the think at some point we are going to be a great defensive team, we are not there yet,” Martin said.
Tennessee outrebounded Georgia 37-30 marking the first time the Dawgs lost the battle on the boards during conference play.
The Vols travel to College Station to take on Texas A&M on Saturday as they hope to avenge a last-second loss suffered to the Aggies earlier in the season. The games tips at 3 p.m.