Hopson, Vols take out North Alabama in exhibition victory

Even though it was an exhibition game, it was a long night for the North Alabama Lions.

Tennessee ran North Alabama out of the building 117-79 in their first exhibition game at Thompson-Boling Arena on Friday night.

From the starting tip-off to the final buzzer, the Vols’ shooting was on target as UT shot 65.7 percent overall and 58.8 percent from beyond the arc. UT head coach Bruce Pearl feels that though the team was able to click offensively, there can be ways to help the team get better, especially with ball control.

“We had way too many turnovers,” Pearl said. “We gave up too much to them offensively rather than taking a charge. Our press is not as effective as I want it to be. It did create the tempo we were looking for; it forced up the tough pass. And I think you can see that offensively we can shoot the ball and spread the floor out.”

Scotty Hopson led the Vols’ offense with 20 points, two assists and four steals while shooting 80 percent from beyond the arc, paving the way for seven different Vol players scoring in double figures.

“We were trying to get a lot of guys playing time tonight,” Pearl said. “This was the best Scotty Hopson has shot this year.”

Among UT’s seven players in double figures was Kenny Hall. He finished with 14 points off of a perfect 5-for-5 shooting. Hall also shot 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

The Tennessee bench didn’t make it any easier for the Lions, outscoring North Alabama’s bench 62-21.

North Alabama came into Friday night’s game trying to help shake off the large amount of inexperience from their lineup; the Lions enter this season with 12 new players. Forward Jared Strode provided the offense for the Lions, leading the team in scoring with 20 points and five rebounds despite shooting 0-for-4 from behind the arc.

Strode was able to get support from the Lions’ Daviel Clements, who scored 17 points and grabbed five boards. North Alabama couldn’t take care of the ball, however, and the Vols capitalized on the Lions’ 28 turnovers in the game.

“We just wanted to come in and play hard and compete,” North Alabama head coach Bobby Champagne said. “Their press really bothered us early, bothered us a lot. We have only had 13 practices so it was kind of hard for us to work on those kinds of things with this game coming so quickly. We were only able to work on the press for two days.”

The Volunteer offense clicked early in the first half as Wayne Chism and Hopson combined to score UT’s first 11 points en route to an early 15-6 run before a timeout. Hopson and J.P. Prince both made North Alabama pay in the paint, pushing the Vols ahead 39-24 with 8:22 left in the first half.

The tenth-ranked Vols took off in the second half and used a 24-9, sparked by a Renaldo Woolridge alley-oops and aggressive scoring in the paint by Brian Williams, to extend their lead to 82-52 with just under 12 minutes to play. Woolridge helped jump start the Vols offense in the second half, where he scored 10 points of his 12 points, allowing the Vols to hold their lead.

“In practice, coaches stress our shooting a lot, and we’ve been getting a lot of shots in, so I think that really prepared us for today,” Woolridge said. “If we continue to do that, I think if we keep working at it, we’re going to keep being more successful in that area.”

The Vols play one more exhibition game against Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday at 9 p.m. in Thompson-Boling Arena before opening up the regular season on Nov. 13 against Austin Peay.