Tennessee avenges Elite Eight loss, holds off No. 3 Houston

LAS VEGAS – Tennessee coach Rick Barnes knew some doubters questioned the No. 17 Volunteers’ schedule and 6-0 record heading into Tuesday’s game against No. 3 Houston.

Those questions, he said, served as motivation in his team’s 76-73 victory over the Cougars in the Players Era Tournament, a rematch of their Elite Eight game eight months earlier. The Volunteers will play Kansas in the tournament’s third-place game on Wednesday.

“I’ve heard the buzz that we haven’t played anybody, but we had a great performance against Ohio State and we had a great exhibition game against Duke and after those two we knew if we could continue to grow, we had a chance,” Barnes said. “We have a group of guys who really like each other. They work hard every day, and more and more, our guys are starting to understand their roles.”

Prior to the matchup against Houston, Tennessee had faced six opponents with sub-100 rankings on KenPom. There were four sub-200 teams. Although the Volunteers won those games by an average of 27.6 points, the program’s to date had left them behind six one-loss teams in the AP Top 25 Poll.

On Tuesday, Tennessee handed Houston – America’s best defensive team – its first loss with a courageous comeback and defensive pressure that resulted in a seven-minute scoring drought in the second half for the Cougars.

As Houston struggled, Tennessee guard Bishop Boswell knocked the ball out of Kingston Flemings’ hands, causing a turnover and score on the other end. During the Cougars’ worst stretch of the second half, they missed 11 consecutive shots at the 15:46 mark until Milos Uzan connected on a pair of free throws with 8:22 left.

Boswell – whom Barnes said was “becoming one of the best defensive guards in the country” – was the catalyst for Tennessee with 10 points, 3 assists, 3 steals and 1 block.

He was particularly effective in guarding Flemings, who was expected to be selected in the first round in the following summer’s NBA draft.

“Obviously he’s a very good player and he played a really good game,” Boswell said of his defensive approach against Flemings. “But I think it’s just working hard. I don’t think it was really an adjustment. We knew he was attacking the right way, but it was just sitting down and guarding.”

“The ball’s got to go in,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said when asked about his team’s second-half scoring drought. But he also said he was surprised by the free throw disparity between the two physical teams, calling the 29–11 difference at the charity stripe “mind-boggling.”

“I mean, (Ja’Coby Gillespie) scored 22 points, but he took 16 shots and made nine free throws,” Sampson said. “That was the difference in the game: free throws. (Gillespie) went 9-for-9. (Flemings) went 2-for-2. I’m not saying we weren’t fouling, but they were fouling, too. Both teams were aggressive, tough, playing evenly.”

During the 2025 NCAA Tournament, Houston reached the Final Four with a 19-point win over Tennessee. Only five players from that game took the court Tuesday. This time, Flemings’ 25-point effort and his team’s 38% clip from beyond the arc were not enough to help the Cougars get a win over a tough Volunteers team.

Sampson credited Boswell for influencing the game.

“A lot of people won’t remember his influence, but it was Bishop Boswell,” Sampson said. “He made an impact. There’s no telling what his future will be in this game. He’s a winner. He was the toughest guy on the field tonight.”

Barnes said the win will give his group confidence moving forward.

“We knew people would be talking about what we had done so far and this group of guys were making this their team, their season,” Barnes said. “They’ve worked on this for six, seven months and they’re a great team. It was really a great team effort.”