Maze finally steps up as Vol guards struggle

Tennessee's Bobby Maze shoots over LSU defender Dennis Harris during an SEC tournament quarterfinal in Nashville. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

NASHVILLE -- There was a point midway through Tennessee's opening-round triumph over LSU on Thursday that coach Bruce Pearl had to wonder if he had left his guards in Knoxville.

Tennessee's perimeter trio of Scotty Hopson, Bobby Maze and Melvin Goins combined for one point on 0-of-9 shooting through the first 20 minutes. Goins, a reserve point guard, did have one free throw, but the perimeter scoring deficiency was undeniably the main reason the 15th-ranked Volunteers found themselves tied with the lowly Tigers 21-all at intermission.

"LSU played zone on us the whole game and it really slowed the tempo of the game down," said Pearl, trying to find an explanation for his team's poor guard play.

"Like Bobby said, we got some pretty good shots, but there's also another reason -- we are last in the league in three-point percentage."

Maze finally connected on a 3-pointer in the first minute of the second half and finished with 14 points, including 11 in the last two minutes. He was 9-of-10 from the charity stripe.

Hopson, on the other hand, never found his shooting touch.

Tennessee's leading scorer missed all eight of his field goal attempts, including four from beyond the arc. His only scoring contribution was a pair of free throws with 4:18 left in the game.

"I was surprised that he struggled tonight because he's been playing really well," Pearl said. "And he's so good against zone. He's really good in space and so that kind of surprised me a little bit."

Vol sophomore Scotty Hopson struggled to put the ball in the hole against LSU. (T-G Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge]

The Volunteers (24-7) finished shooting 37 percent from the field. They hit only 17 percent from 3-point range.

CHISM STEPS UP: Center Wayne Chism caused considerable concern by averaging only seven points and four rebounds in Tennessee's last four regular season games.

It was Chism, however, who single-handedly kept the Vols in the game while the guards were struggling in the first half. The first-team All-SEC selection tallied 10 points in the first half, or nearly half of his team's 21 total points.

He finished with a team-high 17 points, including two of the Vols' four three-pointers. He also added 11 rebounds.

SURPRISED BY START: Pearl admitted that he perhaps made a mistake in estimating his team's energy level to begin the game.

In addition to the missed shots, the Vols amassed only two assists and one steal in a listless first 20 minutes. They also only outrebounded the much smaller Tigers by three rebounds in the first half.

"I should have anticipated that, naturally, our guys would not be as excited about playing LSU as they would be about playing a higher-seeded team. That's not a knock on LSU. It's just I could have turned it up a bit earlier and we didn't."

Tennessee switched to an aggressive man-to-man defense in the second half - a move paid dividends by holding the Tigers scoreless for over six minutes during a key 8-0 surge midway through the second half.

EAST DOMINATION: As was the case throughout the regular season,teams from the SEC East were decidedly better than their Western counterparts on Thursday, winning three of the four first-round tournament games.

Teams from the East held a 27-9 advantage over West teams in the regular season. In fact, the top four teams from the East compiled a stunning 24-0 record against Western teams during that span.

Florida and Tennessee continued that trend and were joined by Georgia in the win column on Thursday. South Carolina was the lone loser from the East, allowing Alabama to erase an 18-point deficit and win the tournament opener on Thursday afternoon.

UP TODAY: Kentucky vs. Alabama (noon); Mississippi vs.Tennessee (2:15 p.m.); Mississippi State vs. Florida (6:30 p.m.); Vanderbilt vs. Georgia (8:45 p.m.)