5Tennessee 61 - 70 Wichita State
Final
  for this game

Cotton, No. 12 Wichita State make history in win against Tennessee

Dec 14, 2013 - 10:38 PM Wichita, KS (SportsNetwork.com) - Tekele Cotton made sure history did not repeat itself Saturday.

Cotton scored all 19 of his points in the second half and No. 12 Wichita State downed Tennessee, 70-61, to reach the 10-0 mark for the first time in school history.

The Shockers (10-0) won their first nine games a season ago before losing to Tennessee a year ago Friday. This time Wichita State made the necessary plays down the stretch and limited the Volunteers to 38.5 percent shooting.

Cleanthony Early added 13 points and Darius Carter chipped in with 11 points and 14 rebounds in the victory.

Jordan McRae paced Tennessee (6-3) with 26 points.

The largest lead for either team in the first 34-plus minutes was only five points, and it was Cotton who helped the Shockers turn the tight contest into a nine-point win.

Tennessee had taken a 44-41 lead near the midway point of the second half after Jarnell Stokes threw down a pair of dunks and added a free throw after getting fouled on the second slam.

Cotton, though, answered with two free throws, came up with a big block of Jeronne Maymon at the other end and converted a go-ahead three-point play the next time down.

With under six minutes to play, Cotton spearheaded a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer, two free throws and a deft pass to Chadrack Lufile for an easy layup that pushed Wichita State's lead to 58-49.

"I thought he played a good game on both ends of the floor," Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin said of Cotton. "He got to the free throw line quite a bit, but I thought he impacted the game on defense. He had a key block on Jeronne and he had a key steal in transition. I thought he did a good job of playing on both ends."

Early's 3-pointer a little later made it a 63-51 affair, and the hosts closed it out from there.

Neither team scored in the final two minutes of a back-and-forth first half, which ended with the Vols clinging to a slim 26-25 lead.

Game Notes

Stokes finished with eight points, seven below his season average ... Ron Baker, Wichita State's leading scorer coming in, was limited to eight points ... Carter's double-double was the second for a Wichita state player this season.






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