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Jahmai Mashack making plays that win basketball games – 247Sports
Jahmai Mashack loves the plays that most people probably don’t notice over the course of a basketball game.
Tennessee’s ace defender particularly loves the plays in which he takes the opposing team’s best offensive player out of the play. When he forces a team to go away from its star player and run its offense through somebody else.
Forcing the basketball out of Terrence Shannon Jr.’s hands was objective No. 1 for Mashack on Saturday afternoon when No. 17 Tennessee (6-3) and No. 20 Illinois (7-2) squared off in Knoxville. Mashack held Shannon in check just enough to help lead the Vols to an 86-79 win.
“Jahmai, today, played his role to the hilt,” Vols coach Rick Barnes said following the game. “In terms of affecting the game in so many different ways. I thought maybe other than one play, two plays, I thought he did what we needed him to do on the offensive end. He embraces it and when he does that, he is a weapon. Today, he was huge.”
Mashack tied a season high with nine points, making both of his field goals and five of his six free throws, while also serving as one of the primary defenders on Shannon.
The star Illinois guard who was coming off a 33-point performance in a win over No. 11 Florida Atlantic on Tuesday night, shot just 2-of-12 from the field against the Vols in the first 35 minutes of the game. Nine of his 22 points came in the final two minutes.
“He’s (Shannon) had a lot of great games but when you can get a team to try and go away from that and look for different options then that means what you’re doing on that guy is working,” Mashack said. “In my head, that was the main goal for me. Just to try and get them to look for other options rather than they’re go-to. I have to say that those plays alone, him not touching the ball, or them trying to get other options are big plays.”
Shannon did shoot a perfect 11-of-11 at the free throw line for half of his points. But he was just 1-of-6 from the three-point line after entering the game shooting 53.9% from the floor and 45.3% from distance.
“What Jahmai does, his role is as important as anybody on the team,” Barnes said. “What Jahmai does wins basketball games for you. He had a lot to do today with what went on out there for us today to win this game.”
Tennessee trailed 36-34 at halftime following a 16-6 run by the Illini to end the frame. Illinois continued its run to start the second half by scoring three quick points to extend its lead to five. It would be the most the Fighting Illini would lead by.
Mashack checked in with the Vols trailing 43-40 and 16:33 remaining, and immediately went to work. Along with Zakai Zeigler, Mashack helped spark a 16-5 run to take a 50-44 lead with 13:43 remaining. Illinois wouldn’t lead again as Tennessee would go on to lead by as many as 12.
“He and both Zakai kind of changed the tide there when they came in with their effort, came up with some loose ball plays that we need,” Barnes said. “I thought those two guys when we were down there flipped the tide for us with their energy, their effort, and just coming up and creating some plays for us.”
“It was huge,” Mashack added. “I feel like you can feel the energy whether you were playing or watching and I think it’s just what we do. It’s definitely what I do and what I take pride in. I feel like I can affect a game whether I’m scoring or whether I’m not. I’m going to be able to affect the game. That’s what I knew coming into this type of environment— that I’d be able to light the crowd up, light our teammates up and have fun.”
Saturday’s win completed the third stretch in program history in which Tennessee played four AP top-20 teams in a five-game stretch. It also marked the fifth current KenPom top-15 team UT has played in its past eight outings.
Tennessee will be back in action on Tuesday night when it concludes a three-game homestand against Georgia Southern (0-9). Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
The Vols will then travel to San Antonio, Texas next Saturday night to face NC State (6-2) in the Hall of Fame Series at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
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