VCU’s Marcus Santos-Silva spearheaded a valiant second-half comeback, but Tennessee’s Lamonte Turner buried a three-pointer from the right corner as time expired to give the Volunteers the victory in a match-up of top-25 teams.
Santos-Silva scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the second half and grabbed 11 rebounds to record his third double-double of the season.
VCU senior guard De’Riante Jenkins added 15 points, including 3-of-7 shooting from beyond the three-point line. Jenkins’ wing three late in the game nearly forced overtime.
Seniors Mike’L Simms and Issac Vann added seven points each. Sophomore guard KeShawn Curry came off the bench to supply five points and six rebounds for the Black and Gold.
John Fulkerson led the Vols with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Jordan Bowden and Turner finished with 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Jenkins drilled a fallaway trey from the right wing with 4.7 seconds left to knot the score at 69-all. Tennessee raced up court and called a timeout with 1.7 seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds play, the Vols found Turner deep in the right corner for the game-winner.
VCU had rallied back from a 13-point second-half deficit. After chipping away at the Vols for nearly 13 minutes, the Rams took a 58-56 lead on back-to-back buckets by Santos-Silva and Curry with 6:42 showing on the clock. The teams would go back and forth the rest of the night.
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