On Saturday afternoon, No. 4 seed Tennessee took down No. 5 seed Duke to punch their ticket to the Sweet 16.
While the Volunteers had the better seed, the Blue Devils looked red-hot and were favorited heading into today’s second-round matchup.
Despite this, Tennessee put together a dominant performance, beating the streaking Duke squad with a 65-52 final score.
The score was tight for much of the game, but the Volunteers started to pull away when senior forward Olivier Nkamhoua scored 13 straight points late in the second half.
The entire team mobbed Nkamhoua and gave him a water-bottle shower when he came into the locker room after his postgame interview.
Take a look at the viral video here:
It is a VIBE in the Tennessee locker room right now as the Vols are headed to the Sweet 16! #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/0DJAnGNBdF
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 18, 2023
Nkamhoua finished the game with 27 points and five rebounds. He had been averaging just around 10 ppg for the season up until this afternoon.
Tennessee will face off against the winner of No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson and No. 9 seed FAU in the Sweet 16.