Vols set school, personal records for 3-point tries

Photo by Saul Young

Tennessee players Ramar Smith, left, and Chris Lofton chase a ball knocked loose from North Carolina A&T’s Ed Jones during Tuesday’s game at Thompson Boling Arena. Wayne Chism watches in the background.

Most sporting records are broken by fractions. What Tennessee did Tuesday night was more like Bob Beamon's mind-boggling 1968 long jump that broke the world record by two feet.

With 33 3-point attempts by halftime, the school single-game record of 38 was sure to fall. It did, when Josh Tabb drilled a trey with 15:59 still to go in the game.

The Vols curbed their enthusiasm for the trey down the stretch, but still finished with 50 attempted in a 93-59 rout of North Carolina A&T at Thompson-Boling Arena.

"I was glad to see we were able to pinch off a few 3-balls tonight," said coach Bruce Pearl, tongue in cheek.

"Of the 50, I don't know how many I would turn down. You've got to let everybody keep taking good shots."

The Vols hit only 14, though, falling short of the school record of 16 - achieved four times, all in the Pearl era.

Chris Lofton broke his individual record for attempts as he launched 20 treys.

"We were coming off a loss," Lofton said, "and that's a bad taste in your mouth.

"So we were going to come out here and try to be aggressive."

Lofton's previous school mark was 18 in the 2006 NCAA tournament loss to Wichita State.

The team mark of 37 came from a 1990 shootout with LSU.

Jordan Howell was aggressive, too. His 11 attempts were a career-high, 10 of them coming behind the 3-point line.

"Every one of 'em were wide open," said Pearl.

Six of Lofton's eight treys - one short of his school mark - came in a 6-of-7 spurt after a 0-of-4 start. Then he cooled down to 2-of-9.

JaJuan Smith was 1-of-9 behind the arc.

Childress Sits: Forward Ryan Childress missed a second consecutive game due a sprained ankle suffered Friday against West Virginia.

"It wasn't a bad sprain," Pearl said, "but it was really sore because it was an old injury."

Childress missed several weeks in the spring because he sprained the ankle, returning when the Rocky Top Summer League began.

Etc.: Coach Phillip Fulmer and the football seniors got a standing ovation when they took the floor at halftime, with highlights of their 52-50 win over Kentucky showing on the Jumbotron. … North Carolina A&T's coach Jerry Eaves was starting point guard on Louisville's 1980 NCAA champion team. … The win was only UT's second game against an MEAC team, the other being a win over Coppin State. … Howell and Ramar Smith split the point-guard minutes with Howell getting 21 and Smith 20. … Cameron Tatum had nine points in six minutes.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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