Gillespie leads No. 21 Tennessee against Florida after 34-point performance

Tennessee Volunteers (11-4, 1-1 SEC) at Florida Gators (10-5, 1-1 SEC)

Gainesville, Florida; Saturday, 12 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 21 Tennessee takes on Florida after Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 34 points in Tennessee’s 85-71 victory over the Texas Longhorns.

The Gators have gone 7-0 in home games. Florida ranks ninth in the SEC with 15.5 assists per game led by Alex Condon averaging 3.6.

The Volunteers are 1-1 against SEC opponents. Tennessee ranks second in the SEC with 40.3 rebounds per game led by Nate Ament averaging 6.5.

Florida’s average of 7.3 made 3-pointers per game this season is only 0.3 fewer made shots on average than the 7.6 per game Tennessee gives up. Tennessee has shot at a 49.3% rate from the field this season, 8.6 percentage points higher than the 40.7% shooting opponents of Florida have averaged.

The matchup Saturday is the first meeting this season for the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Thomas Haugh is scoring 17.5 points per game with 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists for the Gators. Xaivian Lee is averaging 13.8 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 42.3% over the past 10 games.

Gillespie is averaging 18.7 points and 5.7 assists for the Volunteers. Ament is averaging 12.7 points over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Gators: 6-4, averaging 84.1 points, 41.0 rebounds, 15.2 assists, 5.5 steals and 5.3 blocks per game while shooting 46.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.2 points per game.

Volunteers: 6-4, averaging 80.1 points, 37.9 rebounds, 17.2 assists, 8.2 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 48.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.6 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.