The Tennessee Volunteers started their college basketball season on Monday, as they started their college season against the Mercer Bears, which is a game that

Ament, regarded as one of the top freshmen in the country, was much more efficient shooting against Mercer (6 of 11) than he was in last week's exhibition loss to Duke (5 of 19). J.P. Estrella chipped in 12 with points and Jaylen Carey had 10 rebounds.

The Tennessee Volunteers’ 2025-26 season is officially underway. The Vols got it off on the right foot with a 76-61 win over the Mercer Bears on Monday night inside the Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Although it was not pretty, the Tennessee Volunteers found a way to outlast and defeat the Mercer Bears inside Thompson-Bowling Arena at Food City Center to give the home team at 76-61 season opening win.

Tennessee (1-0) hosted Mercer (0-1) on Monday at Food City Center. The game tipped off at 7 p.m. EST and was streamed on SEC Network+ with Myan Patel (play-by-play), Steve Hamer (analyst) and Sarah Detwiler (reporter) on the call. Tennessee was victorious, 76-61. Pat Adams, Jason Barker and RB Clyburn were the officials.