LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Senior forward Wayne Chism added a sore hip to his bum ankle and knee after a nasty spill late in the first half. Sophomore guard Scotty Hopson clearly wasn't himself, because of an illness.
Yet the 12th-ranked Tennessee men's basketball team led third-ranked Kentucky with less than 10 minutes left Saturday night in an uneasy Rupp Arena.
The Wildcats' superiority in talent took over in the final minutes, and dazzling freshman guards John Wall and Eric Bledsoe helped seal their 73-62 Southeastern Conference victory by scoring 21 of their last 23 points.
Kentucky (24-1, 9-1) kept its two-game lead in the SEC Eastern Division standings, while the defending East champion Vols (18-6, 6-4) faded further from the top spot with six regular-season games left.
Senior wing J.P. Prince's three-point play gave the Vols a 52-50 lead with 10:13 left, but four quick points from Wall and a transition slam from DeAndre Liggins put the Wildcats back in front less than two minutes later.
Wall then added two free throws, and Bledsoe's transition layup seconds later pushed Kentucky's lead to 60-52.
Prince and Chism scored two quick inside buckets, but the Vols couldn't get closer than that 60-56 margin. Bledsoe hit consecutive 3s from separate corners, giving the Wildcats their first double-digit advantage with five minutes to play.
Kentucky's game-changing run slowed when Hopson slammed home a lob pass from senior point guard Bobby Maze in the final two minutes.
Wall led all scorers with 24 points on 7-for-15 shooting, and Bledsoe's late flurry helped him finish with 16. Junior forward Patrick Patterson had 10 points and seven rebounds, while star freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins had 12 rebounds to offset a five-point night.
Maze's 15 points led the Vols, and fellow UT point guard Melvin Goins had 14. Chism scored just two points in the second half but finished with 12, while Hopson added a quiet 10.
The Vols made eight of their first 13 shots in the second half, but just five of their last 18.
Chism, who hadn't run since Tuesday because of his sore ankle and knee, entered the game with 16:38 left in the first half. He promptly hit a 3 that sliced Kentucky's lead in half.
The Vols hit the glass hard over the next few minutes and sprinkled in some transition buckets to take a 12-7 lead.
Cousins ferociously slammed down a putback bucket minutes later, though, giving Kentucky a 20-14 lead with 7:40 left. That margin swelled to 24-16, but Maze's 3 capped a 10-2 run that retied the score with less than three minutes left in the half.
Two Liggins free throws in the final minute of the half gave the Wildcats a 30-29 lead at the break. Kentucky, one of the nation's top rebounding teams, edged the Vols only 20-18 on the glass in the first 20 minutes.
UT played the final two minutes of the first half without Chism, who tumbled to the floor after being given a charging call under the basket. Vols coach Bruce Pearl lost his cool for a moment after seeing the officials whistle the charge, but he wasn't assessed a technical -- and the Vols were beneficiaries of an equally questionable charging call on Kentucky's next possession.
Chism led all scorers at the break with 10 points in just 13 minutes. Goins gave the Vols a much-needed spark off the bench for a second consecutive first half. He followed a solid first half Tuesday at Vanderbilt by scoring seven in nine first-half minutes against the Wildcats.
Wall led Kentucky with nine points in the first half, and Patterson added six. Patterson (four) and Cousins (seven) combined for 11 rebounds in the opening half.
UT will host Georgia (11-12, 3-7) on Wednesday night in Thompson-Boling Arena. The Bulldogs are last in the SEC East standings but defeated South Carolina on Saturday and thumped the Vols in Athens on Jan. 23.
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