No. 1 Vols run out of comebacks this time

A Tennessee basketball program that has been climbing for three consecutive years couldn't hold its ground Tuesday night at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn.

The No. 1-ranked Vols needed two comebacks against Vanderbilt. They only made one.

The Vols wiped out a 14-point, first-half Vanderbilt lead. But the comeback appeared to take its toll when the 18th-ranked Commodores regained the lead and the momentum in a 72-69 victory over the Vols, who had ascended to the top of college basketball a day earlier for the first time in school history.

The game started similarly to UT's upset of No. 1-ranked Memphis on Saturday night at the FedEx Forum. Like Memphis, the Commodores opened with a blaze of 3-pointers.

And, just as it did against Memphis, Tennessee withstood the barrage of baskets, bided its time and played its way into the lead. In fact, early in the second half, there was reason to anticipate that the Vols would pull away from the Commodores, as they did in an 80-60 victory last month in Knoxville.

Vanderbilt's star center, A.J. Ogilvy, picked up his fourth foul with 16:05 to play. Midway through the second half, Vanderbilt starting guard Jermaine Beal was assessed his fourth foul.

Not only were the Commodores in serious foul trouble, but UT shooting star Chris Lofton had a hot hand, and Tyler Smith was on his way to a career-high 17 rebounds.

"I thought we put ourselves in position on the road where we could gut one out again," UT coach Bruce Pearl said.

This time, the Vols couldn't close the deal -- for a variety of reasons.

First of all, UT never could force a faster tempo. Also, point guards Ramar Smith and Jordan Howell both struggled against the Commodores.

"We've got to getter better point guard play," Pearl concluded.

The slower tempo had nothing to do with UT's point guards, however. Officials called 53 fouls, and the constant whistle blowing clearly disrupted the offensive rhythm of the top two scoring teams in the SEC.

UT might have capitalized on Ogilvy's foul trouble if not for foul problems of its own. UT's Wayne Chism picked up three first-half fouls and played only 23 minutes. He finished with four points and four rebounds. In the first UT-Vanderbilt meeting, Chism had a career-high 18 rebounds and just as many points.

"He and Ogilvy wound up canceling each other out," Pearl said.

Neither Lofton, who had 25 points, nor anyone else could cancel out Vanderbilt's Shan Foster, who was 1-for-11 from the field in Knoxville. He made nine of 13 field-goal tries, including six of nine 3-pointers, while scoring 32 points Tuesday night.

"He's a great player and a great shooter," Pearl said.

Tennessee just didn't have the shooters to match. The Vols made only 32.8 percent of their field-goal attempts, a season-low.

Pearl gave Vanderbilt's defense plenty of credit for UT's shooting woes. When someone suggested the Vols might have been leg-weary after Saturday's game at Memphis, Pearl wasn't about to use that as an excuse.

"We were fine," Pearl said. "We were absolutely fine."

Tennessee's defeat won't show up in the national rankings until the top-25 polls are announced next Monday. But the loss will have an immediate impact on the SEC standings.

UT leads the conference with an 11-2 record, followed by Kentucky, which is 9-3. The Wildcats, who have the tiebreaker advantage based on their earlier victory over UT, will play host to Ole Miss Wednesday night.

Then comes Sunday's crucial game with the Wildcats at Thompson-Boling Arena, where the Vols can prove they're still No. 1 in the SEC.

(Contact John Adams at adamsj@knews.com.)

(John Adams writes for The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.)