KNOXVILLE - The curious case of Robert Hubbs III took another twist Tuesday night.
The Tennessee basketball program's biggest enigma wasn't the only veteran to break out of a recent slump, though.
Hubbs scored a career-high 20 points and Devon Baulkman added 14 as the Vols overcame a season-low scoring performance from Kevin Punter Jr. to spoil former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl's second return to Knoxville with a 71-45 thumping of Auburn at Thompson-Boling Arena.
"Me and Coach (Rick Barnes) have been having little talks about me and also the team," Hubbs said. "I have to step up. I have to contribute in rebounding and do the little things to help my team win.
"I can do a lot of things. I can pass, rebound, score (around) the rim. I just do some of everything, but it was just a great overall team effort tonight."
Baulkman got it going with a couple of jumpers and finished 5-of-11 from the field and 4-of-10 from 3-point range. In his last five games the senior scored a total of 12 points while shooting 25 percent from the field and 14 percent on 3s.
"It's been really, really tough," Baulkman said. "It's annoying, because you put so much work in trying to get your shot to fall. Once I'd seen the shot going in, it made my confidence go up."
Hubbs scored just two points in a season-low 16 minutes in the Saturday loss at Arkansas. He admitted he "wasn't ready to play" in that game, but he scored 10 quick points Tuesday and later surpassed his previous career high of 19, set against Marshall in November.
"The last couple of days I think he has put more time in the gym," Barnes said. "He knows we need him to play. He knows that, and I thought tonight he really did try, tried to play really hard.
"Detrick Mostella should not be our second-leading scorer in conference play. It should be Robert Hubbs. He's got to do it. I don't know if they game-plan for him now, but he's a guy, if you look at our team, he should be the second-leading scorer on our team."
Punter played just eight minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls, and he could never get going in the second half as Tennessee (12-12, 5-6 SEC) cruised. His only other single-digit scoring performance this season was nine points at Georgia Tech in the second game of the season, and the SEC's No. 2 scorer had reached the 15-point mark 21 times in 23 games this season.
"In some ways we thought it was good we played without him, because he's played so many minutes," Barnes said. "The last two games I don't think he's been sharp. I actually told him I think he looks tired. We've cut back practices, and what he does on his own he's going to have to be smart about it."
Auburn (9-14, 3-8) was without its leading scorer, too, with Kareem Canty (18.3 ppg) suspended for a second game.
Pearl's worst loss in Thompson-Boling Arena during his successful six-year run with the Vols was an 18-point loss to Kentucky when Jodie Meeks scored 54 points in 2009. His second Auburn team flirted with an arena record for the lowest shooting percentage by a Tennessee opponent and avoided the 21-year-old mark only with a 7-0 run in the final minutes that bumped the Tigers' shooting percentage to .237.
They have lost six straight games since beating Kentucky and Alabama in mid-January.
"We're better than that," Pearl said after dropping to 24-34 at Auburn. "Our roster was decimated with injuries, ineligibilities, suspensions. It's been tough.
"You see how challenged we are, but we can play better than that. We can play harder than that. We can represent Auburn better than that."
The Vols jumped to a 9-0 lead and, after Auburn thrice cut its deficit to one, closed the first half on a 14-4 run to lead by 11 at the break.
The lead stretched to 17 on Baulkman's fourth 3-pointer early in the second half, grew to 20 less than eight minutes into the half and eventually ballooned to 33.
Baulkman and Hubbs scored 15 of Tennessee's first 21 points and accounted for 18 of their team's 34 in the first half.
"They needed it," freshman guard Shembari Phillips said. "D.B., I feel like he was getting down on himself a little bit for not scoring a lot of points in the previous games, but we need D.B. and we need Hubbs. We need them to score.
"We need D.B. to take his shots. If he misses a couple shots, in the past he would be hesitant on the next one. That's what he works on and that's what he does. Hubbs, stay aggressive from 17 (feet) and in, and he's lethal on the inside.
"And that's what we need."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.