KNOXVILLE - Just when Tennessee's men's basketball team seemed headed for a fourth straight Southeastern Conference loss, the Volunteers delivered a historic performance in Vanderbilt's vaunted Memorial Gymnasium.
In a building where better Tennessee teams have endured rough nights, the Vols had the most points they've ever scored there in an 87-75 win Saturday against the rival Commodores, who have been playing in Memorial since 1952.
Freshman point guard Jordan Bone, who is from Nashville and played at Ensworth, had 23 points to lead Tennessee's balanced scoring, and the Vols committed just six turnovers after coughing up 41 combined in losses to Florida and South Carolina.
After the win, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes praised the heightened level of communication his players displayed with each other and said it was their "most poised" performance this season.
"What I mean by that," he said, "is I thought every guy was locked in to what we needed to get done."
The Vols (9-8, 2-3) surged into the lead for good midway through the first half with an 11-0 run, and though Vanderbilt (8-9, 2-3) came within two points on a couple of occasions early in the second half, Tennessee's offense was in high gear. The Vols shot a season-best 58.6 percent from the field.
"(The guards) did a good job of knocking down shots tonight," freshman forward Grant Williams said after scoring 12 points to go with nine rebounds and four blocks. "Our guards took the coaches' challenge, and they played phenomenally. They took care of the ball, and they did a good job executing the game plan."
Tennessee sank eight of 15 attempts behind the 3-point arc and scored 40 points in the paint to execute their coach's plan of playing offense from the inside out against Vanderbilt's zone defense.
Admiral Schofield came off the bench and continued his resurgence with 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting, and Robert Hubbs III and Lamonte Turner each scored 12 points. Turner's 3-pointer with 6:26 left gave the Vols a 72-63 lead.
"We moved the ball well," Barnes said. "We were wanting to attack inside out, which we did. Again, I thought Turner's 3 was a big one, because they had started back up there to take away the middle. Obviously, we were looking to put it in there.
"For two small guys, undersized guys, Grant and Admiral did a great job of just taking the ball to the basket. Robert got some things done in there as well. I thought our patience and our poise against the zone was really good. We worked on it some. We didn't do much after the South Carolina game. (Friday) we talked about it and today during shootaround. We simplified it and said, 'This is what we're looking for, and you guys have got to play out of it,' and I thought they did a good job."
In his fifth game back after a nine-game absence due to injury, Bone again flashed his promise during an efficient performance in his homecoming.
"Of course it feels amazing," he told reporters, "but I want to thank my teammates and my coach, just giving me the confidence to take those shots and hit those open shots."
Bone shot 8-of-12 from the field, drained four 3s and handed out five assists.
"He was terrific in practice (Friday)," Barnes said. "He didn't play well at Florida - showed spurts - but really had a tough night against South Carolina. I honestly didn't think about it until (assistant coach Rob Lanier) said to me, 'He didn't play in the Gonzaga game, and it's going to be interesting to see how he would respond.'
"He was good. He still has to get better defensively, but I thought he took care of the ball better. I thought he wasn't trying to do too much over-dribbling. He was great in practice. He had a day in practice like he did tonight, shooting the ball and getting to the rim. He carried over, and he's got to see if he can build on it now."
Tennessee hopes to garner some momentum this week at Ole Miss (10-7, 1-4) and against visiting Mississippi State (12-4, 3-1).
"As a team our mindset is to go out there and have fun and compete (and) to give our all for Tennessee," Schofield said. "The biggest thing we emphasized this week was swagger and having a fire. I think we played that way tonight."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.