KNOXVILLE It's beginning to develop into a habit.
It's one the Tennessee men's basketball team knows it needs to break, too.
The Volunteers trailed at halftime for the seventh time in nine games this season and needed late three-point plays from Armani Moore and Devon Baulkman to grind out a 61-58 win against visiting Tennessee Tech at Thompson-Boling Arena on Friday night.
"It's not something we're comfortable with," said Baulkman, who scored 10 points. "We've just got to come out and start from the jump and not be a second-half team. We're going to play good teams during the season, so I think we've just got to buckle down and everybody be on the same page from the jump.
"As the season progresses, we should get better at that."
Tennessee (5-4) led 17-16 with less than seven minutes before the break, but the Golden Eagles, powered by four 3-pointers by guard Torrance Rowe, ended the half on a 9-0 spurt to take a 32-26 lead into halftime.
The Vols, who missed 10 layups in the first half, have led at halftime only once -- the home win against Kansas State -- and were tied with Texas Southern at the midpoint.
"I certainly would like to start better than we have," first-year coach Donnie Tyndall said, "but I just don't have an answer for that."
The answer Friday night was whatever Tyndall said at halftime, as the Vols were much more lively to start the second half.
"I just challenged our guys that they needed to play with more energy," he said. "It just seemed like we were going through the motions a little bit. My teams don't usually do that. We certainly don't always play well and we don't always play good, but we usually play pretty hard.
"In the first half, we didn't have that."
Tennessee's coach typically doesn't mince words, and he didn't Friday night.
"He was ticked," Josh Richardson said after scoring 19 points to lead Tennessee in scoring again. "But I think he did a good job of saying the right things at halftime and not just chewing guys out meaninglessly. I think he did a good job of saying the right things that'll touch somebody's mind that, 'Oh, I need to pick it up."
In a game that featured 10 lead changes and seven ties, the Vols gained their first lead since the 3:51 mark of the first half on Willie Carmichael's dunk with 9:07 left.
Moore hit only his second basket of the game, was fouled and hit the free throw to give Tennessee a 55-51 lead with 1:53 left, and after Carmichael came up with a steal, Baulkman did the same with 54.7 seconds to go.
"Making plays like that," Carmichael said, "will basically win you games against any team."
Slow starts, though, can doom you.
Second-half runs after halftime deficits came up short for Tennessee in losses to Virginia Commonwealth, Kansas, Marquette and North Carolina State, though the Vols used big second halves in wins against Santa Clara and Butler.
Tyndall thought Thursday's light practice with his team playing its third game in six days -- the Vols did 20 minutes of noncontact individual work and walked through the scouting report on Tennessee Tech -- might have had an effect in the lack of energy Tennessee had Friday.
Tennessee Tech (6-5) was picked just fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference's East Division, but the Golden Eagles had a frontcourt duo of Dwan Caldwell (6-8, 245 pounds) and Charles Jackson (6-10, 225) who Tyndall said would start for him now at Tennessee. He coached for six years in the OVC at Morehead State.
"We had some great games when I was at Morehead against Tech," Tyndall said, "and it seems like I used to win by a lot bigger margin than three at Morehead, but that probably gives you a little bit of an idea of where we're at right now."
Tennessee Tech played Alabama tough in Tuscaloosa earlier this season and pushed the Vols on Friday.
"It's Christmas break and a lot of people don't know about Tennessee Tech, or teams like that," Richardson said. "They can come in here and beat anybody. They're just as good as any other school.
"We've got to do a better job of coming out with a little bit of energy. I was trying to get the guys going, but it took a while."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.