Vols win Atlantis title, end 17-game run by Kansas

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- Santiago Vescovi scored 20 points portion No. 22 Tennessee locked down connected third-ranked Kansas to bushed the reigning nationalist champions 64-50 successful Friday night's title crippled astatine the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Vescovi deed 5 3-pointers to thrust the discourtesy for the Volunteers (5-1), who dominated the glass, overcame their ain turnover troubles and made the Jayhawks enactment for cleanable looks. And for the 3rd clip successful arsenic galore days, Tennessee won contempt not having starring scorer Josiah-Jordan James owed to genu soreness.

This triumph led to a rubric and Vescovi being picked arsenic the tournament's astir invaluable player.

The Jayhawks didn't person an casual archetypal 2 days successful the Bahamas. First came a conflict to the last minutes with North Carolina State. Then came Thursday's overtime triumph against Wisconsin connected Bobby Pettiford Jr.'s last-second putback. But they ne'er looked successful immoderate benignant of violative travel this time, ending a 17-game winning streak dating to past year's tally to manager Bill Self's 2nd NCAA title.

The Vols held the Jayhawks to 32.1% shooting, bothering them with size and magnitude astir the rim. And they showed the toughness to instrumentality the shot close astatine the Jayhawks with 5-foot-9 sophomore defender Zakai Zeigler starring the way.

Zeigler had 14 points, including a 3-pointer to bushed the changeable timepiece astatine the 7-minute people to propulsion Tennessee's pb to 56-38. He followed with different large 1 from the close helping with 4:42 near aft Kansas had closed wrong 11.

Jalen Wilson and Joseph Yesufu each scored 14 points to pb the Jayhawks (6-1), who changeable 28.6% successful the archetypal fractional and ne'er warmed up. They made 5 of 21 3-pointers successful what was an all-around unsmooth night, from losing starting defender Dajuan Harris to fouls with 9 minutes near to failing to support the Vols disconnected the solid (45-27).

The Volunteers opened the tourney with a triumph implicit Butler, past grinded done an overtime triumph against Southern California successful Thursday's semifinals down a large crippled from first-year guardant Julian Phillips. But things were someway easier connected Friday, with Tennessee playing successful beforehand the full mode en way to its archetypal rubric successful 3 tries astatine the Atlantis resort.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.