KNOXVILLE – Three seconds.
That’s all the time Vanderbilt needed to take a lead it would never relinquish against Tennessee.
The visiting Commodores punished the Volunteers for a slow start by jumping out to a 14-point lead and denying the hosts’s comeback attempts in the second half to win 67-56 at Thompson-Boling Arena on Wednesday night.
Tennessee (15-13, 7-8 Southeastern Conference) disappointingly came out flat and recorded its lowest scoring output and worst shooting performance of the season with its NCAA tournament hopes hanging in the balance.
The Vols trailed by 15 in the first half and twice trimmed the deficit to one in the second half, but Vanderbilt (15-13, 8-7) made the winning plays down the stretch to record a third straight win in Knoxville, which the Commodores hadn’t done since the late 1950s.
Robert Hubbs led Tennessee with 16 points and Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield each chipped in 11.
Vanderbilt had five players score in double figures, but the Commodores were led by Jeff Roberson (15 points and eight rebounds) and 7-footer Luke Kornet (13 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocked shots).
Vanderbilt ran what appeared to be a designed play off the opening tip won by 7-footer Luke Kornet to get Riley LaChance a layup only three seconds into the game.
The Commodores scored the first eight points of the game and led 18-4 on Kornet’s 3 at the 11:15 mark.
Jeff Roberson’s jumper gave Vanderbilt its largest lead of the first half (25-10) before Tennessee finally began showing signs of life and chipping away at its deficit.
Even though Vanderbilt missed nine of its final 10 shots of the first half, Tennessee still trailed 28-18 at halftime and was fortunate to be down only that much after shooting just 23 percent (6-of-26) with zero 3-pointers in the first half.
It was the first time Tennessee scored less than 20 points in any half in more than two years dating back to a February 2015 loss to Kentucky during Donnie Tyndall’s lone season as head coach.
Schofield scored eight of Tennessee’s 18 points and was the only Vol to make multiple shots, but Vanderbilt failed to inflict further damage after making eight of its first 17 shots and finished just 3-of-14 on 3s in the first half.
Tennessee opened the second half with much more energy and trimmed the deficit to four (29-25) on Williams’s 3 — he scored his first points of the game and made the Vols’ first trey of the game — three minutes into the second half.
Vanderbilt answered with a pair of Nolan Cressler 3s, Roberson’s highlight-reel one-handed slam and another Fisher-Davis triple to maintain the lead.
Trailing by nine (40-31), Tennessee got 3s from seldom-used Kwe Parker — it was the freshman’s first triple since the East Tennessee State game before Christmas — and Schofield and two Hubbs free throws to pull within three (42-39) with more than eight minutes to play.
Williams hit two free throws to pull the Vols within 44-43 with 6:01 to go, but Joe Toye drained a 3 after Schofield clanked two free throws and Cressler again was left open to nail his third 3 to put Vanderbilt back up 52-45.
Toye and Kornet scored to increase Vanderbilt’s lead to nine, but Williams converted a three-point play and Hubbs made two free throws to make it a 56-52 score with 2:24 remaining.
Parker was whistled for a questionable foul away from the ball while defending Riley LaChance on the ensuing possession, and the Vanderbilt point guard made both free throws.
The Commodores then sealed the game at the free-throw line to complete its revenge for Tennessee’s 87-75 win in Nashville in January.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.