GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s furious fight for a spot in the NCAA tournament fell short to a Tennessee team determined to make history.

The Volunteers clinched their first outright Southeastern Conference men’s basketball championship in 41 years Wednesday night, overcoming a double-digit, second-half deficit to defeat the Gators 89-86 in their typically tough O’Connell Center.

Both teams blew big leads before the senior-laden Vols (27-3, 13-2 SEC) outlasted the senior-less Gators (21-9, 8-7) — who have played themselves squarely onto the NCAA tournament bubble despite returning virtually nothing from the teams that won the past two national championships.

“This is a very special place to come win championships,” noticeably hoarse-sounding UT coach Bruce Pearl said. “We have unbelievable respect for them.”

UT’s prominent senior guards propelled the Vols to a 10-point, second-half lead, but two sophomores put it away. Tyler Smith putback a missed free throw with 44.1 seconds left to unlock an 85-all tie, and Wayne Chism hit two free throws to cap the scoring with 18.5 seconds left.

JaJuan Smith took a charge on Florida forward Dan Werner with 7.9 seconds remaining, but Walter Hodge deflected an in-bound pass off Smith to give the Gators one more shot — which freshman sensation Nick Calathes missed from the wing. The ball bounced out of bounds to UT, and a baseball-style pass to Chism took up the final half-second of a wild night in Gainesville.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” said JaJuan Smith, a McMinn County High School graduate. “Being the state of Tennessee, and knowing everything that’s happened here in the past — I grew up watching Tennessee basketball — this is just a wonderful feeling to be the first ones to bring it back in 41 years.

“This means a lot to me, my family and my state.”

Ironically, in-state rival Vanderbilt did its part to help the Vols about an hour earlier in Nashville. Shan Foster got the final three of his 42 points on a last-second shot to lift the Commodores to an overtime victory over Mississippi State in Memorial Gymnasium.

“I heard about that,” Vols senior guard Chris Lofton said. “Thanks, Shan.”

MSU’s loss combined with UT’s win put the fourth-ranked Vols at least two games up on the rest of the conference with one regular-season game left.

“For me, JaJuan and Jordan (Howell), from where we started our freshman year, to make history like this ... it’s just great,” Lofton said. “That’s what this year is all about — making history.”

JaJuan Smith scored 16 of his 23 points in the second half, and Lofton added 21. Calathes had 24 points and nine assists to lead the Gators — who might need to rebound from this stomach-punching setback and win at Kentucky on Sunday to defend their two titles.

“I really thought we played as well as we could play,” UF coach Billy Donovan said. “In the first half we did a good job on Lofton and JaJuan Smith ... But you have to give those guys credit. They do it every game.

“They make the toughest 3-pointers you can imagine.

Down by as many as 16 points in the first half, UT started its rally as soon as it touched the ball after the break. The Vols scored four points in 39 seconds before Donovan called a timeout that didn’t disrupt the run.

JaJuan Smith gave UT its first lead on a putback with 7:43 left, and he added two quick, contested 3s to make it 76-69.

Donovan was whistled for a technical foul moments later for arguing an over-and-back-call on Calathes, and Lofton hit the second free throw to make it 77-69. Chism added an inside bucket on UT’s subsequent possession to cap the 37-14 run.

UF fought right back, tying the game at 85 on a Calathes 3 with 1:47 left.

The Gators started the first half as remarkably accurate as they did in Knoxville last month, making their first nine shots from the field — including four behind the arc — to take a 23-10 lead.

UT got within 41-31 on a Howell 3 with 4:50 left in the half, but the Gators bumped it to 55-42 at the half.

The Gators made 15 of their first 19 shots from the field — taking a 37-21 lead — and they cooled only slightly to a still-scorching 19-for-28 (67.9 percent) at halftime. At that point, they were 7-for-12 from long range and 10-for-11 from the free-throw line.

UT’s regular-season finale against South Carolina (13-16, 5-10) tips off at 2 p.m. on Sunday.