No. 22 Tennessee rolls past Iowa State 68-45

AMES, Iowa -- In search of a spark, Tennessee looked to its bench -- and reserves Lamonte Turner and James Daniel III were more than ready to give the Volunteers the boost they needed.

Turner scored 20 points, Daniel had 16 and 22nd-ranked Tennessee rolled past Iowa State 68-45 on Saturday in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge for its sixth win in seven games.

Admiral Schofield had 10 points and seven rebounds for the Volunteers (15-5), who overcame a horrid start to post their fifth road win of the season.

"We played like we try to play in terms of our defense," said Tennessee coach Rick Barnes, whose team handed Iowa State its worst nonconference loss since rival Iowa beat the Cyclones by 25 in 2001.

Tennessee missed 15 of its first 17 shots to fall into a quick early hole. But the Vols soon settled down in their first trip to Hilton Coliseum, closing the first half on a 26-7 run keyed by three 3s from Daniel, who led the nation in scoring in 2015-16 while at Howard.

Daniel had 14 points in the first half, which was two more than he scored in his previous three games combined.

"He had it going on," Barnes said. "You could feel it."

So did Turner. Tennessee extended its lead to 44-21 after he hit back-to-back 3s to cap a staggering 39-9 spurt spanning the halves.

Donovan Jackson had 13 points for the Cyclones (11-9), who were held to their lowest scoring output of the season after hitting only four 3s and shooting 7 of 17 from the line.

Senior Hans Brase replaced talented freshman Cam Lard in the starting lineup for the first time. Brase went scoreless while Lard finished with six points and nine rebounds, and coach Steve Prohm said after the game that Lard's brief benching was "between me and him."

Prohm said Lard will be back in the starting lineup on Wednesday against West Virginia.

"Not much really to say, outside of (that) it's a bad performance," Iowa State coach Steve Prohm said. "When we get hit, we fold."

THE BIG PICTURE

Tennessee: The Vols have five road victories in their first seven tries -- a stat the NCAA Tournament selection committee surely will appreciate. They did so with resilience, rallying from their early struggles in a tough venue with one of their best stretches of the season. A 49-31 edge on the boards didn't hurt either.

Iowa State: This was one of the Cyclones' worst performances of the season. As a rebuilding program, a lack of focus can make things get ugly in a hurry -- and getting outscored by 30 points in less than 20 minutes is about as ugly as it gets. "Soft. One word. That's all it is. We played soft," Jackson said. "Hilton is supposed to be our safe haven. We're disrespecting Hilton right now."

POLL IMPLICATIONS

After beating Vanderbilt at home and Iowa State on the road this week, Tennessee could find itself moving up a few spots on Monday.

THE NUMBERS

This was Barnes' 650th win as a head coach. Sixteen of those victories came against Iowa State, who Barnes faced 24 times as the coach at Texas. ... The Cyclones' previous low for points this season was 55, which came in an ugly six-point win over Maryland-Eastern Shore to close 2017. ... The Vols shot 50 percent in the second half and hit 22 of their last 45 attempts from the floor. ... Iowa State had 11 turnovers to just nine assists, and point guard Nick Weiler-Babb was held scoreless. He also had three turnovers and two assists.

HE SAID IT

"I do think we're growing. I don't think there's any question about that ... I do think playing a really hard schedule helps you," said Barnes, whose team's strength of schedule ranked third nationally entering play.

UP NEXT

Tennessee hosts LSU on Wednesday.

Iowa State hosts the seventh-ranked Mountaineers on Wednesday.

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