Tennessee guard Josh Richardson, front right, drives to the basket past Kansas State guard Jevon Thomas (1) during an NCAA game at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville on Saturday.KNOXVILLE - Armani Moore fired the basketball to a wide-open cheerleader sitting along the baseline.
The Tennessee forward promptly did whatever he could to avoid making eye contact with his head coach.
It was the hairiest moment of a weird final minute, as the Volunteers nearly did enough to undo 39 minutes of a very positive performance before hanging on to beat Kansas State 65-64 in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in front of 14,111 at Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday afternoon.
"This probably was one of our greatest weeks of practices," Moore said after he scored six points and added five rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots. "I feel like that's where it all starts. Everybody came in with the right mindset this week. Everybody was accepting coaching. There wasn't nobody late to anything this week for school.
"It was just a really good week for us, man, and we came out here and played really well, and it showed."
The Vols (3-3) forced 22 turnovers -- the most by a Tennessee opponent since North Carolina A&T committed 34 in December 2009 -- and turned those mistakes into 21 points. Despite a 39-28 rebounding disadvantage, Tennessee outscored the bigger Wildcats 28-14 in the paint. The Vols recorded a season-high 12 steals.
"It starts with defense," said Josh Richardson, who led the Vols with 17 points. "I think a couple of other games, we kind of laid down once a couple teams hit some shots on us. I think today we didn't let it faze us.
"I think it was huge for us. We're a pressure team. That's how we want to be able to play."
The final minute was a clinic on how not to finish a basketball game, however.
Tennessee held its largest lead of 57-45 on a Kevin Punter jumper with 3:42 left and led 60-50 when Richardson split a pair of free throws with 1:00 left in the game.
Marcus Foster, Kansas State's leading scorer, then hit four 3s in the final minute -- the Wildcats were 4-of-16 on 3s to that point -- while Tennessee missed four free throws.
"It may sound a little bit corny, but we're still trying to figure out how to win," first-year Vols coach Donnie Tyndall said. "We get the lead, and you could almost tell we start playing not to lose, and there's a difference. There's a distinct difference. Guys became a little bit reluctant.
"We just need to learn how to finish games, and hopefully tonight will be a step toward doing that."
After Moore broke down the floor and threw a pass out of bounds with 32.4 seconds left, Foster hit a 3 to make it 61-58.
"When Armani threw that no-look pass out of bounds," Tyndall said, "I had a flash where I was going to go to jail for a second."
Said Moore: "It was a dumb play on my part. I thought (Derek) Reese was going to be at the spot. I should have just pulled the ball out.
"(Tyndall) looked at me and said some things that probably he wanted nobody else to hear," he added with a laugh.
Tennessee took an 11-10 lead on Richardson's 3-pointer at the 8:53 mark of the first half, and Kansas State (4-4) got its deficit down to a point only once. The Vols held the Wildcats to 25 percent shooting in the first half and led 25-17 at the break. In the second half, the Vols had an answer every time Kansas State threatened to erase the host's lead.
It was a nice win for a young team.
"For us to have 12 steals against that team and force 22 turnovers is a compliment to how hard our kids played," Tyndall said. "When guys miss a shot, they'll drop their head and swear and be disappointed or mad, and I always say, 'If you'll act that mad and be that disappointed when you get driven or miss a block-out, then you have something.'
"I don't know if we're to that point yet, but I do think our guys showed some pride at the defensive end today."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.