Tennessee Rolls Past Ohio Into Sweet 16

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- There was only one glass slipper at the Dunkin Donuts Center on Saturday, and St. Mary's made off with it in the early game. By the time 13th-seeded Ohio took the floor, there was no more magic to be had. Tennessee crushed the would-be Cinderella Bobcats 83-68 to advance to the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16.

Senior guard J.P. Price paced the Vols for the second game in a row, scoring consistently and efficiently throughout the game as Tennessee was able to run its offense right toward the basket against the overmatched Bobcats and do whatever it wanted to do. And Ohio, which had shot the lights out in a first-round upset of third-seeded Georgetown, hit a mere 37.9 percent of its field goals in this one.

"We didn't want their guards making plays," Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. "We watched them make plays against Georgetown, and we knew we didn't want that."

Pearl watched Thursday night at Ohio ran ball screen after ball screen against the Hoyas and guards Armon Bassett and D.J. Cooper had huge games. So in practice Friday, he drilled his team on ways to take away the ball screens, prevent the guards from turning corners and forcing the ball into the hands of the Ohio forwards.

"We defended ball screens the way they defend ball screens in the NBA," Pearl said.

The result was that Bassett, thee MVP of the MAC tournament run that got Ohio into the NCAA tournament field, was 2-for-10 from the field and 1-for-6 from three-point range. Having scored 152 points in his previous five games, Bassett scored just seven in his final game of the season.

"I tried to make sure and guard him before he had the ball," Tennessee's Scotty Hopson said. "Just made every catch tough, contested everything he did and just tried to keep him out of a rhythm."

It worked, but it couldn't have if not for the defensive rotation Pearl employed against Bassett and Cooper. Hopson, Cameron Tatum and Josh Bone all took turns defending the guards, and their performance, Pearl said, was emblematic of the most crucial aspect of Tennessee's team.

"I thought a lot of teams had one guy that could defend Cooper and Bassett, but I didn't think a lot of teams had two guys that could do it," Pearl said. "This is why you take the time to develop a bench, and I trusted our bench."

Pearl said of his team the other night that "our five might not be as good as some other teams in this tournament, but our 10 might be." And the stat sheet shows how hard he leans on that depth. Nine different players played at least 10 minutes for Tennessee on Saturday, and only forward Wayne Chism played more than 30.

So Tennessee, the only team in the field that can claim victories over both Kansas and Kentucky, continues its perplexing season. At times, the Vols have looked as if they could be one of the best teams in the country. But they've also suffered through injury problems and maddening inconsistency. Now, they'll be one of the final 16 teams left standing when the tournament resumes Thursday, and they could be one win away from another matchup with the top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks, a team they beat 76-68 on Jan. 10.

KEY ELEMENT

Tennessee's size advantage inside. Chism and Brian Williams combined for 24 rebounds, and Tennessee's remarkable shooting percentage (56.7 percent) was a testament to its ability to get to the basket against Ohio's undersized defense. And with the Bobcats not hitting their outside shots this time, Tennessee's size worked to its crucial advantage on defense as well.

GAME BALL GOES TO

J.P. Prince, once again. He's 12-for-18 from the field so far in the tournament and has scored 33 total points in his team's two games. Tennessee is running a well-balanced offense and getting contributions from all over, but Prince has been their most consistent performer so far. Prince, however, gave the credit to point guard Bobby Maze, who had nine assists.

"All the credit goes to him, really, for breaking the press and making their guards work all day," Prince said. "We really had an easy job, just laying the ball in."

HEART GOES OUT TO

Tommy Freeman, Ohio's junior forward, who had the best shooting game of anybody on the floor for the Bobcats. Freeman was 6-for-11 from three-point range in this game, 3-for-4 in the first-round victory over Georgetown and scored a game-high 23 points while Ohio's guards struggled uncharacteristically to hit their shots.

WHAT'S NEXT

On Friday in St. Louis, Tennessee will face the winner of Sunday's second-round game between Georgia Tech and Ohio State.