NASHVILLE - Admiral Schofield had a pretty good look at the winning 3-pointer that would have extended Tennessee's basketball season.
Instead the sophomore forward left the shot short, and just like that it was over for the Volunteers.
That's the cruelty of March.
Tennessee's offense dried up at the worst possible time as the Vols failed to make a field goal in the final three minutes and 58 seconds and lost 59-57 to Georgia in the Southeastern Conference tournament at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday afternoon in Nashville.
The Vols end Rick Barnes's second season as coach with a 16-16 record.
Jordan Bone emerged from nowhere to lead Tennessee with 14 points, while fellow freshman guard Lamonte Turner chipped in 13, but the Vols didn't get enough offense from leading scorer Robert Hubbs III (six points on 3-of-11 shooting) and top freshman Grant Williams (six points).
The Vols held J.J. Frazier, Georgia's explosive guard, relatively in check as he scored 17 points on 4-of-13 shooting, but the Bulldogs (19-13), who will face top-seeded Kentucky on Friday, got a boost by the return of forward Yante Maten, who scored 12 points.
It was fitting a nip-and-tuck game with eight ties and 12 lead changes came down to a final shot.
After a first half featuring four ties and seven lead changes, Georgia scored the opening six points of the second half to take a five-point lead, but Tennessee battled back to tie the game at 37 on Schofield's 3 at the 13:27 mark.
The Bulldogs again went on a 6-0 spurt capped by Maten's jumper to take a 43-37 lead.
The Vols pulled back to within a point on Bone's fourth 3 of the game -- he made nine during SEC play, with four of those coming in a 24-point game in a win at Vanderbilt in mid-January -- and Turner's tough finish on a drive.
Williams, Tennessee's SEC All-Freshman team selection, was saddled with foul trouble throughout the game, picking up his second less than five minutes into the game and his third a little more than three minutes into the second half.
He was without a point or rebound until hitting two free throws to give Tennessee a 48-47 lead with 6:48 left in the game.
The Bulldogs answered Jordan Bowden's go-ahead 3 with two Frazier free throws and E'Torrian Wilridge's layup after an end-to-end sequence featuring two wildly missed transition layups and Williams failing to catch a lob at the rim off an inbounds pass.
Juwan Parker's steal and dunk pushed Georgia's lead to 55-52 with 4:18 remaining, then Williams scored inside.
Maten missed two foul shots, but Tennessee failed to capitalize with Bowden and Bone missing 3s.
Frazier scored on a drive and answered two Schofield free throws with a pair of his own to hand the Bulldogs a 59-56 lead with 1:36 remaining.
Williams split a pair of free throws with 38.1 seconds remaining, but Georgia's Mike Edwards opened the door for the Vols by missing two free throws to set up the final possession.
Tennessee missed its first six shots until Turner made a 3 with Georgia leading 5-0.
Kyle Alexander gave the Vols their first lead of the game (11-9) on a putback, and the two teams traded the lead back and forth for the final nine minutes of a defensive first half.
Frazier missed his first two shots before nailing a 3 to answer Alexander's bucket and finishing the first half with seven points on 2-of-5 shooting.
Maten, Georgia's other All-SEC player, returned from a four-game absence due to a sprained knee and predictably looked rusty. He was whistled for an offensive foul within seconds of entering the game and accounted for two more turnovers. He also missed some good looks in the lane.
Turner and Hubbs made six of Tennessee's first seven field goals -- their teammates were 1-of-15 from the field -- when Bone, who played just three minutes in the regular-season finale against Alabama, scored the final eight points of the half for the Vols.
The point guard banked in a runner, drained a contested 3 at the end of the shot clock and splashed a step-back 3 with his defender juked out of position.
Turner started and Bone played more minutes due to the absence of Shembari Phillips, who hurt his ankle in Wednesday's practice and watched Thursday's game from the bench in sweats with a walking boot on his left foot.
Phillips started the Alabama game for defensive reasons, and Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Wednesday he was going to start the Georgia game with the defensive assignment on Frazier, who'd scored 57 points on the Vols in each of their meetings the past two seasons.
Tennessee shot just 32 percent in the first half, but its defense -- Georgia shot less than 40 percent and committed 10 turnovers -- was the main reason for a 27-26 halftime lead.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.