Tennessee scored enough points to hang with the No. 18 basketball team in the country Saturday afternoon.
Getting enough stops to pull the road upset was a different story for the Volunteers, though.
Third in the country in scoring, Butler got going after a slow start and overwhelmed Tennessee’s new-look 2-3 zone defense before fending off the pesky Vols in a 94-86 win at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
“I think we took a step the last 10 days in practice, but we fought hard in a real physical game,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes told the Vol Network radio broadcast after the game. “When I look at it, I know there’s ways I’ve got to do a better job to help them. I don’t like the way we finished the game, and that’s got to be on me.
“I like this team. I really like this team. I like this group of guys, but I don’t want them to think being close and getting close is good enough. It’s not.”
The Vols (4-4) led by 10 points in the first half, but the host Bulldogs cranked up the offense in the final eight minutes before halftime and in the second half to lead by 11 with 10:32 left in the game.
Without Robert Hubbs, Tennessee hung around and trailed by only five points inside the final three minutes. That’s when Armani Moore missed a layup and had his second-chance shot blocked, and Butler converted the ensuing run-out into a layup to make it 90-83 with two minutes to go.
The Vols missed eight straight shots after Moore scored to make it 86-82 with 4:27 left.
The Bulldogs (8-1), averaging 91.4 points per game, shot 52 percent in the second half and made 26 of 30 free throws to keep Tennessee at bay.
In its zone, Tennessee gave up 14 offensive rebounds, and Barnes lamented moments when his team “didn’t play the scouting report” and allowed Butler easy looks.
“We’ll learn a lot from this game with our zone, because we’ve worked on it in practice a lot the last 10 days,” Barnes said.
Tennessee was minus-13 in rebounding, and its bench was outscored 35-8 as Butler’s Kelan Martin scored 25 points, including a stretch of 13 straight in the second half, and grabbed 11 rebounds.
The Vols’ Kevin Punter, the SEC’s second-leading scorer, scored 27 points on 10-of-23 shooting, and Moore stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, six rebounds, seven assists, two steals and two blocks.
Freshman Admiral Schofield was a bright spot, scoring a career-high 16 points with seven rebounds in his first start.
“As a team we’re going to get better,” Schofield said. “Over these next three practices, we’re going to get better. I think that tonight was more of a positive. It was a negative outcome, but it was more positive because we see what we’re up against (and) see who we’ve got to fight against to get to where we want to be.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com