FORT WORTH, Texas - With a break from the brutal Big 12 schedule, Chris Washburn and his TCU basketball teammates felt they really needed to take advantage of the opportunity Saturday.
Malique Trent scored 14 of his 15 points after halftime, when the Horned Frogs had a pair of 10-0 runs and rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Tennessee 75-63 in the Big 12-SEC Challenge.
"We felt like this was a need-win game. We all came in here and played that way," said Washburn, who had 14 points and nine rebounds. "Just the way everything's been going, we'd lost three or four straight games. That's why I felt like we needed to win this game."
The Frogs (10-11), who get back into conference play Tuesday at No. 1 Oklahoma and then host No. 4 Kansas, actually had lost five in a row.
"It's a good win for us," said coach Trent Johnson, who before TCU coached in the SEC at LSU. "Any win's a good win for us, considering how we have been playing."
Trent started one of the Frogs' big runs with two free throws to put them up 56-55 with eight minutes to play. It was their first lead since Chauncey Collins' 3-point basket with 14 minutes left in the first half made it 16-15. Over the next three minutes, Trent had two more free throws, Karviar Shepherd made a jump shot and Washburn had back-to-back baskets - a slam dunk and a tip-in.
Tennessee (10-11) missed 15 of 16 shots in one stretch, including 10 in a row to fall behind by 12 until Kevin Punter's three-point play with 1:20 left.
Punter scored 24 points for the Volunteers, who shot only 33 percent (23-of-69) and blew a double-digit lead after halftime for the second game in a row. Armani Moore scored 10 points.
The Vols led by 15 with 14 minutes left Tuesday night at Alabama before losing 63-57. They are 1-9 on the road this season.
"It's been kind of the same thing the last couple of games when adversity starts coming a little bit," first-year Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "What happens when it starts swinging the wrong way for us, we have too many that just go and hide and put everything on KP, and everybody's game-planning for him anyway. He needs some help."
Barnes had been in the Big 12 the previous 17 seasons as coach at Texas. He was 8-0 against the Frogs while with the Longhorns.
TCU scored 10 consecutive points to start the second half after trailing 41-27 at the break. Trent had a layup and a 3-pointer to start it, and the Frogs were within 41-37 on a 3 by Brandon Parrish with 17:21 left.
Parrish scored 14 points and Shepherd had 13.
"At halftime I just told them, 'Hey, look, we've been here before.' We need to be aggressive. Everybody needs to do their job," Johnson said. "We showed some courage and we kept our poise, meaning we had every opportunity to fold our tents."
The Frogs are 3-0 in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. They beat Mississippi State and Ole Miss the past two seasons.
Tennessee made eight 3-pointers before halftime, including Admiral Schofield's just before the break for the 14-point lead. The Vols then went 0-for-15 from beyond the arc in the second half, including Punter missing five. They shot 24 percent overall (8-of-34) after halftime.
Tennessee hosts No. 20 Kentucky on Tuesday night.