The crowd was standing all game, making a lot of noise for their Musketeers, and when Bruce Pearl picked up a technical foul with just under four minutes to play it looked like Tennessee was coming apart. The players had more composure than their coach, though. They forced four turnovers in those final four minutes and closed with a 13-2 run for an 82-75 win. Tyler Smith was the standout for the Vols during that run. He scored six of his 12 points, blocked a shot and had a key steal to help the Vols to their biggest win of the season. They wouldn't have been in position to pull it off if not for the great first half turned in by J.P. Prince. With Chris Lofton and the normally deadly Vol three-point shooters shut down, Prince, playing just his third game in orange, kept driving through the perimeter focused Musketeer defense. He had 16 points in the first 20 minutes and his play off the bench will make Tennessee a dangerous team as the season progresses.
The loss is a tough one for Xavier to swallow.
Their clumsy play down the stretch made mincemeat of an otherwise strong performance. Stanley Burrell had a strong game from the outside and the Vols had no answer for Derrick Brown, C.J. Anderson and Jason Love inside. They combined for 33 points, 24 rebounds and shot 15-of-18 from the line but their interior toughness disappeared in the clutch.
It's their second straight loss against money conference opposition, and what must gall Sean Miller is how different it was than last week's beating at Arizona State. In that game, Xavier was outplayed all afternoon but today they were the better team until the final four minutes. An inability to close out close games will crush them in the A-10. There aren't going to be many cakewalks in conference and Xavier is going to wear a target each and every night.
