KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - No. 17 Tennessee basketball opened up the Players Era Men’s Championship in Las Vegas, NV with a dominating 86-50 victory over Rutgers on Monday afternoon.

Tennessee trailed for only 14 seconds in the 26-point win.

It was a career game for senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie. The Greeneville, Tennessee native paced the game with a career-high 32 points in just 29 minutes of action, finishing 6-for-10 from beyond the arc.

True freshman Nate Ament tallied another incredible outing with 20 points and five rebounds.

Last Monday against Rice, forward J.P. Estrella went down with a left leg injury, but he was back for the Volunteers making a huge impact off of the bench. Estrella ended with 10 points in the same amount of minutes.

Tennessee improves to 6-0 to start the

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