College basketball and suspense go hand in hand, especially during the Maui Invitational Tournament, where cliffhangers are expected. Fans are eagerly anticipating the competition, and the champion squad may fiercely compete in the NCAA regular season. This is exactly what happened when Tennessee played against Syracuse on Monday. The Vols battled injuries and overcame a sluggish offensive start to advance to the Maui Invitational with a 4-0 record this season and a 4-6 overall record.

The Maui Invitational is an early-season college basketball competition held on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Eight NCAA Division 1 teams compete against each other in a tournament that starts around Thanksgiving. The competition is officially hosted by Chaminade University of Honolulu. Due to wildfires in the area of Maui, the competition was moved to the Stan Sheriff Center from the Lahaina Civic Center, where it was originally scheduled to take place from November 20 to 22, 2023.

Tennessee teaming up for Top 5

With a 9-0 record going into the game, it was Syracuse’s first-ever tournament loss. The guard for Tennessee basketball spied on Jahmai Mashack as he was dribbling to the hoop and made a layup. Against Syracuse, Vescovi dominated the game, setting the direction for the other nine players on the floor. In tandem with Vescovi, Josiah-Jordan James was at the top of his game. Leading scorer Dalton Knecht was sidelined by cramping, but the fifth-year senior tandem emerged for the No. 8 Vols with a strong second-half performance.

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In Rick Barnes’ nine seasons as head coach, Tennessee has now won its opening four games of a season four times. With 17 points in the game, Dalton Knecht was the Vols’ top scorer. In addition, he had two blocks, three assists, and four rebounds. Knecht scored 15 points in the first half. For the Vols, Jahmai Mashack ended with eight points and four rebounds.

Is Dalton Knecht the Next Big Thing for Tennessee Basketball?

Following the game, Barnes remarked, “Adamant, hard-fought game. I’m really, really proud of our older group at the end when we had some different situations.”

It was Dalton Knecht’s day

Tennessee’s fifth-year guard, Dalton Knecht, had another fantastic day to help the team win. Knecht led the Vols to a 30-25 advantage at the half after scoring 15 of UT’s 30 points in the first half.

During the first 20 minutes of play, he accomplished this on 5-of-9 and 3-of-4 shooting from three.

Knecht played barely 10 minutes in the second half because of cramping, but he still finished with a game-high 17 points. He left the game at 10:20 and didn’t come back until 2:24, thus missing eight minutes of action as the Vols defeated Syracuse.

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In addition, the Northern Colorado team had three assists, two blocks, four rebounds, and a steal.