HONOLULU: Hunter Dickinson scored 17 points and grabbed 20 rebounds and No. 1 Kansas pulled away for a 69-60 victory over No. 7 Tennessee on Wednesday.
The Jayhawks (5-1) bounced back from a 14-point loss a day earlier to take third place in the Maui Invitational over the Volunteers (4-2), who have dropped their last two games.
Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to tie it at 49 with 12:44 to play, but Kansas answered with back-to-back buckets from Dickinson to pull ahead for good.
The Volunteers led by as many as seven in the first half.
Vescovi made five 3-pointers and finished with 21 points. Dalton Knecht and Jordan Gainey contributed 13 apiece and Jonas Aidoo had 11 rebounds.
The score was tied at 35 at the half.
It was the fifth meeting between the teams in the last six seasons. Tennessee had won the last two meetings, but Kansas still leads the all-time series, 5-3.
The game was a rematch of the Battle 4 Atlantis championship a year ago. Tennessee won that game 64-50.
BIG PICTURE
Tennessee was playing back-to-back games against top-three teams for the first time in program history. It hung tough with No. 2 Purdue on Tuesday, but faded down the stretch and came up short, 71-67.
Kansas took the court at the Stan Sheriff Center about 12 hours after it was routed by No. 4 Marquette 73-59 in the tournament semifinals Tuesday.
UP NEXT
Tennessee will visit North Carolina next Wednesday as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge.
Kansas will host Eastern Illinois on Tuesday and UConn three nights later in the Big East-Big 12 Battle.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball