DeWayne Brown II Posts 17 and 17 as No. 8 Tennessee Pulls Away From Wofford 90-59

For 20 minutes on Tuesday night, the 18,389 fans at Food City Center had reason to squirm. A brand-new Tennessee roster, fresh off double-digit exhibition losses to Xavier and Duke, was tied with Wofford at 27 late in the first half and clinging to a 34-31 lead at the break. Then the Vols remembered who they are under Rick Barnes. Tennessee outscored the Terriers 56-28 after halftime, ripped off an 18-2 run early in the second half, and rolled to a 90-59 season-opening win.

DeWayne Brown II was the headliner. The big man posted career highs of 17 points and 17 rebounds for his first collegiate double-double, and his work on the glass set the tone for a second half that looked nothing like the first.

A Shaky Start for a New-Look Roster

This is not last season's Tennessee team. After three straight trips to the Elite Eight, including a 2026 tournament win over Miami (OH), Barnes reloaded with eight transfers. Eleven players made their first official appearance in orange on Tuesday, and three of them, Marquis Clark, Manny Green and Chris Washington Jr., made their college debuts. Chemistry was always going to take a minute.

It showed early. Tyler Lundblade buried two 3s to give Tennessee a 12-6 lead about four minutes in, but Wofford answered with six straight points in 30 seconds to tie it at 12. A second 6-0 Terriers burst put the visitors ahead 18-15 with 8:25 left in the half, and during one stretch a Terrence Hill Jr. three-point play was the Vols' only score for nearly eight minutes.

Lundblade's third 3 and an and-one from Brown pushed Tennessee back in front 21-18, and the Vols built the lead to six. Wofford did not go away. The Terriers closed the half on an 8-2 run, tied it at 27 with 2:51 left, and went to the locker room down only three. Wofford also outrebounded Tennessee in the first half, which is about as un-Barnes a stat as exists.

The Turning Point: An 18-2 Haymaker

Whatever was said at halftime worked. Miles Rubin opened the second half with a dunk, and after Wofford cut it to two one last time, Tennessee unloaded. The Vols went on an 18-2 run over 4:24, including 10 straight points in a span of 2:02, and turned a tight game into a 54-36 lead with 14:44 to play.

It was the first of three second-half runs of at least 8-0. Over the first 14 minutes after halftime, Tennessee outscored Wofford 36-10. The Vols led 62-38 with 10:50 left and 70-41 at the 7:22 mark. The Terriers, meanwhile, went 6:36 without a field goal and missed 11 straight shots during that stretch.

What changed? Tennessee started running. The Vols scored 27 fast-break points to Wofford's six, and most of that damage came after the break, since the first-half edge was only 11-2. Missed shots became run-outs, and the Terriers simply did not have the legs or the size to keep up. Tennessee shot 22 of 36 (61.1 percent) in the second half.

Brown Owns the Paint

Brown's line was the kind that gets a coach's attention: 17 points on 7 of 11 shooting, 17 rebounds, three assists and two blocks, plus a perfect 3 of 3 at the line. Both the points and rebounds were career bests, and his previous rebounding high was 14. He is just the fifth player of the Barnes era at Tennessee to grab 15 or more rebounds in a game, and the first Vol with at least 17 points and 17 rebounds in a game since Jarnell Stokes in 2014. That is not a bad name to be mentioned alongside.

Tennessee dominated the interior as a team, outscoring Wofford 52-24 in the paint and winning the rebounding battle 42-34 after trailing on the glass at halftime. Rubin was efficient in 23 minutes, going 4 of 5 for eight points with four rebounds and a pair of steals.

New Faces, Real Production

Hill made a strong first impression in his Tennessee debut. He scored 17 points without making a 3, going 6 of 7 inside the arc and 5 of 5 at the line, and added three assists and two steals off the bench. He was 0 of 6 from deep, so there is a version of this night where his line looks even better.

Lundblade gave the Vols the floor spacing they will need, hitting 4 of 9 from 3 for 12 points, and his early shooting was the main reason Tennessee was not in a deeper hole during the first-half slog. Troy Henderson, meanwhile, reached double figures for the first time in his career, scoring 10 points in only 12 minutes on 3 of 5 shooting, 2 of 4 from deep and 2 of 2 at the line.

Juke Harris, who was named to a preseason Naismith watch list, had a quieter night with seven points and four rebounds in 26 minutes. Dai Dai Ames scored Tennessee's first basket of the season, a layup seven seconds into the game, and finished with six points. Jalen Haralson added six points and six rebounds.

The bench was the difference in a lot of ways. Tennessee's reserves outscored Wofford's 41-24, and the Vols' depth wore down a Terriers team that had matched them punch for punch for a half. Tennessee also shot 15 of 16 at the free throw line (93.8 percent), only the 10th time in the last 20 seasons the Vols have shot that well on at least 15 attempts.

Wofford Had a Plan, Then Ran Out of Gas

Give Wofford credit. A Southern Conference team that finished 19-13 last season walked into one of the loudest buildings in the SEC and played the No. 8 team in the country even for a half. Cam Lowe led the Terriers with 14 points on 5 of 13 shooting, and Chris Arias and Cutter Sisk each added 10. Evan Ramsey was a load inside with eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

The problem was shooting. Wofford went 19 of 62 from the field (30.6 percent) and 6 of 27 from 3, and on a night when barely one in five of those 3s fell, there was no way to keep pace once Tennessee started running.

The two programs know each other well. Their last meeting came in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament in Lexington, when second-seeded Tennessee won 77-62. The Vols are now 10-0 all-time against Wofford.

What It Means

For Tennessee, the first half is a warning and the second half is a promise. The Vols have a lot of new pieces, and they looked like it for 20 minutes. Once the defense locked in and the transition game got going, this looked like the Barnes teams that have been fixtures in the second weekend of March.

The win was Barnes' 861st as a head coach, and it extended Tennessee's program-record streak of non-conference home wins to 45. The Vols are now 37-3 in home openers at Food City Center.

There are questions to answer. Tennessee went 7 of 23 from 3, turned it over 10 times, and needs Harris to look more like a watch-list player. But Brown looks like a real interior anchor, Hill can clearly score, and the depth is real.

Tennessee hosts Radford on Monday, Nov. 9. Wofford visits North Carolina on Friday, Nov. 6.

For the full numbers, see the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab) and Tennessee's game recap (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN, Tennessee Athletics, Associated Press. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

A 31-point win that was tied with three minutes left in the first half is exactly the kind of result that teaches a new team something. Tennessee learned it can survive a bad half. Now the Vols need to learn how to avoid one.

Photo: Tennessee Athletics.