Tennessee’s streak of falling short of Final Four continues as shooting woes prove insurmountable

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jahmai Mashack had a towel over his head and tears in his eyes as he walked through a somber Tennessee locker room minutes after the Volunteers’ bid to reach their first Final Four in an NCAA Tournament came to an ugly conclusion.

Chaz Lanier embraced Igor Milicic, then Cade Phillips. Zakai Zeigler moved down the row of stalls hugging his teammates. It was silent. Stunned silence.

The Volunteers (30-8) never saw this coming, the way their 69-50 Midwest Region final loss to Houston unfolded.

They missed 19 of their first 22 shots and scored just eight points in the first 15 minutes. They were down 34-15 at halftime, the lowest first-half points total in an Elite Eight game since 1979 and the lowest by any No. 2 seed in NCAA Tournament history.

“No, I don’t think you expect it to happen, you know?” coach Rick Barnes said. “I thought our coaches did the job that they always do, preparing our guys, and we came out and, again, we knew it would be difficult.”

Difficult, yes, because they were playing the best defensive team in the country. But this difficult?

The Vols shot 1 for 15 on 3-pointers in the first half and finished 5 of 29 (17.2%), their third-worst mark of the season. Their overall 28.8% shooting was their second-worst performance. They only scored fewer than 50 points once this season, in a 73-43 loss to Florida.

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“They came out aggressive, and it’s really hard to come out of a hole when it’s that deep,” Milicic said. “We pushed, and I feel like in the second half we were the better team. With a great team like Houston, it’s hard to come back from a 19-point deficit.”

The Volunteers, who also lost in the Elite Eight last year, now have made 27 NCAA Tournament appearances without having made a Final Four. Only BYU (32), Missouri (30) and Xavier (30) have longer streaks.

“It’s tough because as badly as we all want it, it always hurts if you don’t get it all,” Barnes said. “I do know this: This team gave us every possible thing they could.”

Lanier, who came into the game averaging a team-best 22 points, missed nine of his first 10 shots. The Vols’ record holder for 3-pointers in a season didn’t make his first one until early in the second half, after he had missed seven in a row.

“It just goes like that some games,” said Lanier, who had 15 of his 17 points in the second half. “It happened to go that way this game. But they deserve it. They were the tougher team tonight and they came out and handled business.”

The game got off to an ominous start when Lanier launched an airball on the Vols’ first possession. Houston shut down driving lanes, and the Vols struggled from the perimeter, with many of their shots short. Zakai Ziegler, the dynamo of a point guard, had two of his shots blocked and finished with five points on 1-of-9 shooting.

Houston collected 14 offensive rebounds, with Joseph Tugler and J’Wan Roberts taking turns batting the ball to a waiting L.J. Cryer or Milos Uzan in the backcourt to keep possessions alive.

As the half progressed and the frustration grew, Barnes either had his hands on his hips or folded across his chest, shaking his head as play after play went in Houston’s favor.

“They were what we saw on tape,” Felix Okpara said. “We knew what they were going to do. We didn’t make shots early in the game. Wish it went the other way. They took advantage and made their shots and crashed the glass.”

The Vols had come back from a 16-point deficit to beat Vanderbilt in the regular season. But Vanderbilt isn’t Houston. That being the case, the halftime margin proved insurmountable even though a second-half surge led by Jordan Gainey, who scored 17 points, cut the Cougars’ lead to 10 with 5 1/2 minutes left.

The Vols will be starting over next season. Lanier, Zeigler, Mashack and Milicic are out of eligibility, as is sixth man Gainey, and Okpara might declare for the draft.

“It’s going to sting right now,” Lanier said, “but there are a lot of people wishing they were in this room, sitting here. So we’re lucky to get the opportunity to put on this uniform and be a part of this family. Once you look back on it, we had a great year.”

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