#20/17 Vols Earn Wire-to-Wire Victory over Rice, 91-66

Monday, November 17

Knoxville, TN

8:30 PM ET

University of Tennessee

4-0,0-0SEC

Rice

2-3,0-0American

Rice

Tennessee

#20/17 Vols Earn Wire-to-Wire Victory over Rice, 91-66

November 17, 2025 | Men's Basketball

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men's basketball team led from start to finish Monday night in a 91-66 triumph against Rice at Food City Center.

Senior forward Felix Okpara paced No. 20/17 Tennessee (4-0) with a game- and career-high 20 points, adding eight rebounds in the program's 40th consecutive non-conference home victory.

The Volunteers held Rice (2-3) to just one make on its first nine attempts from the floor through the opening six-and-a-half minutes, en route to building a 21-9 advantage midway through the first half. The Owls responded with nine of the next 11 points to get within five at the 6:41 mark, but the Tennessee defense again took over, forcing nine consecutive misses while taking a 36-22 lead.

The margin sat at 13, 39-26, at the intermission, as the Volunteers shot 53.1 percent (17-of-32) and held Rice to a 24.1 percent (7-of-29) clip at the other end. The Owls' leading scorer, graduate guard Tre Broadnax, went 0-of-11 from the floor in the first 20 minutes, including 0-of-6 from deep.

After Rice started the second half with a 3-pointer, Tennessee went on a 9-2 run in 1:52—senior guard Ethan Burg capped it with his third 3-point make in as many attempts—to take a then-game-best 17-point edge, 48-31, with 17:01 to play.

The Volunteers extended the cushion to 20 for the first time with 7:47 to go when they went in front, 71-51. They pushed it as high as 26, 83-57, on a three-point play by freshman forward Nate Ament with 3:59 remaining. Tennessee went on to claim its third consecutive decision by at least 25 points.

Okpara's first 20-point performance came on 8-of-10 shooting, as he also set a career best in made field goals. The Lagos, Nigeria, native also made all four of his free throws and had two assists.

Ament concluded the night with his first collegiate double-double, as he amassed 19 points and a career-high 10 rebounds, the latter mark leading all competitors. He added a career-best three steals in the decision.

Senior guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie totaled 17 points and a game-high eight assists, the latter of which led all game. The Preseason Second Team All-SEC designee shot 6-of-12 from the floor, including 3-of-6 beyond the arc. Burg, meanwhile, finished with a career-best 11 points in the victory.

Senior guard/forward Nick Anderson scored 19 points to pace the Owls, while freshman guard Cam Carroll had 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Senior guard Jalen Smith added 10 points.

Tennessee held Broadnax to just five points and without a made field goal, as he missed all 16 of his attempts from the floor, eight of which came from beyond the arc. The Volunteers became the first team to hold an opposing player without a made field goal on 16-plus attempts since March 8, 2022, and just the fourth to do so in the last 20 seasons (2006-26).

The victors turned in a dominant performance down low, amassing a 52-16 edge in paint points and a 22-8 margin in second-chance points. They had a 47-31 advantage on the glass and pulled down 18 offensive rebounds. Tennessee also shot 52.3 percent (34-of-65) on the night.

The Volunteers finish their five-game, season-opening homestand Thursday at 7 p.m. when they welcome Tennessee State to Food City Center, live on SEC Network+.

To keep up with the University of Tennessee men's basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.

TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS POSTGAME NOTES
• Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes now owns 840 victories in his career, remaining in sole possession of first place among all active Division I head coaches and in ninth place all-time (min. 10 years in Division I).
• Monday marked the first series meeting between the Volunteers and Owls in 62 years, as the prior four matchups all came between 1951 and 1963.
• Tennessee collected its second win over Rice, with the prior such victory coming on Dec. 3, 1962, also in Knoxville.
• Barnes remained undefeated against Rice, improving to 10-0, with each of the first nine contests coming during his tenure at Texas.
• As announced prior to tip-off, sophomore guard Bishop Boswell, who started each of the first two games and missed the last contest due to a right foot injury, did not play due to a left leg injury sustained in practice.
• Redshirt sophomore forward J.P. Estrella departed the game with 1:26 left in the first half due to a left leg injury and did not return.
• Tennessee has now won 40 consecutive non-conference home contests, a streak that dates to Dec. 8, 2020, and spans six seasons.
• This is the second time in program history Tennessee has won 40 straight non-conference home games, per Elias Sports Bureau, joining a 43-game tally from Dec. 7, 1940, to Dec. 10, 1949.
• After using just two starting lineups the entire 2024-25 season—one of them for 37 of 38 games—the Volunteers have now doubled that total through just four outings in 2025-26, as they have gone with a different group in each contest.
• Tennessee has accumulated 19-plus assists in all four games this season, including tallying 22-plus in each of the past three.
• The Volunteers have grabbed least 47 total rebounds and at least 16 offensive rebounds in all four games this year, averaging 50.0 and 17.5, respectively, so far.
• Tennessee has not only shot over 50.0 percent in each of its past three games, but has posted a clip over 50.0 percent in all six halves during that stretch.
• The last time the Volunteers shot at least 50.0 percent from the field in both halves of three straight games was in the second, third and fourth contests of last season, when they did so on Nov. 9, 13 and 17 in games at Louisville, against Montana and versus Austin Peay, respectively.
• Tennessee's defense led to Broadnax becoming the fourth Division I player in the last 20 seasons (2006-26) to take 16-plus field-goal attempts and not log a make, including the first since Wagner's Alex Morales went 0-of-16 on March 8, 2022, at Bryant.
• The other two individuals to do so over that two-decade span are Southeastern Louisiana's Jeffrey Ricard (0-of-16) on Dec. 16, 2012, at North Texas and UAB's Robert Vaden (0-of-17) on Feb. 26, 2009, versus UAB.
• After making 58 starts across the first three years of his career at other institutions, senior guard Amaree Abram registered his first start as a Volunteer and finished with four assists to match his total from the first three games combined.
• Playing in his 42nd game at Tennessee, Okpara led the team in scoring for the first time in his two years with the program.
• Okpara's previous career high of 16 points came on two occasions, the first versus Cornell on March 19, 2024, in an NIT game while at Ohio State and the second on Jan. 18, 2025, at Vanderbilt while with the Volunteers.
• Okpara's prior career-best total in made field goals was seven, which he recorded in the same contests against the Big Red and the Commodores.
• Ament recorded double-digit rebounds for the first time in his young career and notched his first double-double.
• Ament registered the first double-double by a Tennessee freshman since Jan. 17, 2023, when Julian Phillips had 18 points and 11 rebounds at Mississippi State.
• In each of Ament's first four collegiate outings, he has finished with at least 18 points and eight rebounds.