No. 7 Tennessee fouls out in Maui Invitational semifinal loss to No. 2 Purdue

No. 7 Tennessee fouled out of the Maui Invitational winner bracket Tuesday at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu, losing 71-67 to No. 2 Purdue in the tournament’s semifinal round.

Jonas Aidoo and Tobe Awaka fouled out late in the close game, after Santiago Vescovi dealt with four fouls of his own, and the Vols went cold for most of the game’s 40 minutes.

Zach Edey hit the go-ahead free throw with 2:24 left, after Aidoo fouled out, and Purdue extended the lead at the foul line over the final 90 seconds.

Tennessee (4-1) got 16 points from Dalton Knecht, but had just three in the second half. Jordan Gainey scored all of his team-high 15 points in the second half, while Jahmai Mashack finished with nine and Vescovi added eight.

Purdue (5-0) got 27 points from Fletcher Loyer and 23 from Edey.

The Vols will now face either No. 1 Kansas or No. 4 Marquette in the tournament’s third-place game on Wednesday, a 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN2.

Gainey tied the game with a 3-pointer 3:07, but Purdue answered with a 6-0 run to take a 70-64 lead in the final minute. Knecht hit a three with 14 seconds left, his first made shot of the second half.

Tennessee went on a 7-0 run — all seven points were free throws — to cut and eight-point deficit down to one with 7:34 left. The Vols went 17 minutes, 56 seconds of game time with just two shots made from the floor before Zakai Zeigler and Tobe Awaka score with just over six minutes left.

When Tennessee finally got a shot fall, with Gainey hitting a three at the 5:35 mark to get back within two, Purdue answered with a Loyer 3-point play on the other end.

The Vols tied it at 61-all with 4:17 left, when Gainey hit his second three in less than two minutes, but Awaka fouled out 33 seconds later, giving Purdue a 62-61 lead at the foul line.

Purdue took control with a 10-2 run to start the second half, building a seven-point lead, its biggest of the game at the time, on an Edey three-point play with 17:41 left.

Meanwhile, the Vols went eight minutes, 50 seconds of game time without making a shot from the floor — the final 4:46 of the first half and the first 4:04 of the second half — while letting go of what was as much as a nine-point lead in the first half.

A Tobe Awaka field goal broke up the streak, but his was the only shot Tennessee made from the floor for a stretch of 13:01. It ended when Zakai Zeigler hit a three to get the deficit down to three with 11:45 left.

A Josiah-Jordan James foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 1 with 11:15 left, helping Purdue start a 5-0 run to get the lead back to eight with 10 minutes left.

Vols led by one at halftime after physical first half

Tennessee led 31-30 at halftime, after a first half dominated by whistles.

Officials called 23 combined fouls between the two teams and hit with a technical after he argued his team was pushed on one of the foul calls against the Vols. The two teams combined for 39 free throws, with Purdue scoring 16 of its 30 points on 26 free-throw attempts.

Tennessee led by as many as nine thanks to a 10-0 run midway through the half, with Purdue going 6:44 without making a shot from the floor. The Vols finished the half without a made field goal over the final 4:46 of the half.

Knecht scored 13 in the first half and Mashack had seven, including the four points of the game. Purdue got a combined 27 points from Loyer (17) and Edey (10) in the first half, with Edey going 6-for-12 at the foul line on his own.

Maui Invitational Bracket

Purdue advanced Monday with a 73-63 win over No. 11 Gonzaga will start Monday, after the Vols opened the tournament with a 73-56 win over Syracuse. No. 1 Kansas beat Chaminade on the opposite side of the bracket at No. 4 Marquette beat UCLA in Monday’s late game.

Gonzaga beat Syracuse Tuesday and will play for fifth place in the tournament.

The championship game will be played Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN. The third-place game is Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and the fifth-place game will be played at 12 a.m. ET on ESPN2. The seventh-place game will be played Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU.