PHILADELPHIA — Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 22 of his 29 points in the first half and J.P. Estrella added 14 points and 10 rebounds as No. 6 seed Tennessee ended the magical season for 11th-seeded Miami (Ohio), 78-56, in a Midwest Region first-round game on Friday afternoon.
Felix Okpara added 12 points and five rebounds for Tennessee (23-11), which advanced to Sunday’s second round against No. 3 Virginia.
Peter Suder scored 27 as the only player in double figures for Miami (32-2), which dropped two of its final three games after setting a school and Mid-American Conference record with a 31-0 regular season. It was the RedHawks’ first loss to a non-MAC team since Dec. 18, 2024, when they fell 75-67 at Vermont.
Miami started the day as the national leader in field goal accuracy at 52.2%, but the Vols’ stronger and longer players limited the RedHawks to 35.2% shooting – their worst of the season. They also made just 7 of 29 from long range. That 24.1% success rate was their third-worst showing of the year.
“They were very, very physical with us with our offense,” said Miami coach Travis Steele. “They were super, super physical on drives and cuts and just couldn’t get loose. I know we scored a little bit there at the very beginning of the game, but, man, it was a physical game.
“On the other end, Gillespie was unbelievable. We got deep threes, NBA-range threes, and he’s got that type of range and (made) five, I think, in the first half, but he’s hard because you have to keep him out of the paint. They send him off a lot of off-screens and Coach Barnes puts him in a really good position to be successful. 29 points and nine assists, he dominated the game.”
Gillespie canned 8 of 12 from the field in the first half, which included 5 of 6 from 3-point range, as Tennessee built a 51-32 halftime lead.
“It felt good to see one go through and to have my teammates finding me, and I was able to start finding them,” said Gillespie, who added nine assists. “It was good to have a flow on offense going.”
Miami entered with the No. 2 scoring offense in the nation (90.6 points per game), but could never find consistent offense after an initial flurry. After the RedHawks hit five of their first six shots to take a 13-10 lead in the first four minutes, Tennessee dominated every facet of the game to seize a 43-23 lead on Estrella’s short hook with 2:41 left in the first.
“We really wanted to establish inside,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “That’s not just going to the big guys. We felt like we got it in there they would double, which they did. But then Ja’Kobi, when he gets going like that, we’re going to let him go with it, but it was our defense. Early getting out in transition, deflections and going out, getting some of those baskets without having to play against a set defense is always important.”
Symbolic of the way things went for both teams in the opening 20 minutes, Ethan Burg’s deep 3-pointer from the right side hit the front rim, bounced off the back and fell through as time expired to give Tennessee a 51-32 halftime lead. Miami got no closer than 17 points in the second half.
Tennessee finished at 52.5% from the field (31 of 59) and canned 9 of 20 from long range. The Vols also outrebounded Miami by a 42-25 count.
The RedHawks’ Eian Elmer, who poured in 23 points and hit 6 of 9 from 3-point range in Wednesday’s First Four win over SMU, went scoreless in the first half and finished 2 of 10 from the field while missing all seven attempts from beyond the arc.
“Congrats to (Tennessee), but that doesn’t take anything away from our team,” Steele said. “Our team has had a heck of a journey. The quality of human beings that we have in our locker room, man, we’re everything that’s right about college athletics in my opinion.”
–Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media
