NASHVILLE — Derek Reese sat along one wall of the Tennessee locker room inside Bridgestone Arena on Friday night with the blood still seeping slightly from three small cuts on his forehead.
The junior forward sported it with pride, the same sense that infiltrated the room after what likely was the final game of the season.
That game essentially summed up the entire season for the Volunteers, the undermanned team that often proved to a tough one to finish off.
After falling behind 13-0 in the game’s opening minutes and trailing by 20 points early in the second half, the 10th-seeded Vols cut their deficit to second-seeded Arkansas to four points with 3:37 left before bowing out of the Southeastern Conference tournament with an 80-72 quarterfinal loss.
“We’re not holding our heads down, because we still fought,” Reese said. “We don’t want to be in positions like that, but we still fought. We still came together.