ATLANTA - Rick Barnes leaned back in his chair and threw up his arms in a motion of frustration.
You couldn't blame Tennessee's first-year basketball coach for the reaction as he assessed what just happened.
The Volunteers threw away a nine-point lead early in the second half and missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer in a 69-67 loss to Georgia Tech in front of 5,467 at McCamish Pavilion on Monday night.
Tennessee guard Devon Baulkman (34) and Georgia Tech forward Marcus Georges-Hunt (3) scramble for a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Monday, Nov. 16, 2015, in Atlanta.
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes yells from the bench in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against the Georgia Tech on Monday, Nov. 16, 2015, in Atlanta. Georgia Tech won 69-67. "I didn't think we were disciplined at all on the offensive end when we had control of the game," Barnes said. "We just got too loose with the ball - silly turnovers, guys doing things we hadn't seen as a staff, just throwing the ball around. We just didn't have the discipline to do what we trying to get done as a team.
"I do think we showed some courage and some fight to get back in it."
Tennessee (1-1) trailed 40-38 at halftime and roared out of the break with an 11-0 run in the first five minutes of the second half. Armani Moore converted a three-point play, Devon Baulkman hit a 3 after missing his first six shots and Kevin Punter threw in a runner at the shot-clock buzzer to make it 53-44 with 14:31 left in the game.
"We were playing our type of basketball," Moore said after scoring a team-high 17 points with six rebounds, four steals and four blocked shots. "That was running up and down the court. We were getting the ball out quick, trying to beat them down the court and getting to the line.
"I think with a team like that who was bigger than us, but not necessarily as fast as us, we've got to play to our advantage, and I think we did that in the second half."
It's when Tennessee got careless doing that and missed some makable shots that the tide started to turn.
The Vols made just one of their next 14 shots after Punter's make and missed 10 straight during a 4-minute, 46-second scoreless stretch that included five turnovers. Georgia Tech (2-0), which got 23 points and nine rebounds from Alabama transfer Nick Jacobs, took advantage.
"We made a couple of major mistakes in the game," said Moore, who had six turnovers. "I know had a couple of crucial turnovers that kind of turned the momentum over to Georgia Tech, but I feel like we all competed as a team.
"I definitely think it's something we've got to work on, maintaining a lead and knowing when to be aggressive and when not to overdo it. I think a couple of times I tried to overdo it. It's just a learning process, and we've got to get better from this game."
The Jackets completed a 21-5 run with a Marcus Georges-Hunt 3 that gave Georgia Tech a 65-58 lead with 6:47 left.
Tennessee battled back and still had a chance to win it in crunch time. Punter, who missed a chunk of the second half due to cramps, missed two free throws with 1:19 to go that would have tied the game, and Robert Hubbs (13 points) had a shot in the lane blocked.
With a seven- or eight-second difference between the shot and game clocks in the final minute, Tennessee would have fouled "if the right guy" got the ball, Barnes said.
Georgia Tech missed a 3, and the Vols rebounded it and called time out with six seconds left.
Barnes wanted Moore to drive to the basket on the final possession, but he was too slow getting the ball up the floor and handed it to Baulkman for a deep 3 that missed badly.
"That was the play," Moore said. "but I feel like they shielded us off at the moment, and I just did whatever my instincts told me, and that was to throw the ball back up to D.B. for the shot. He took the shot. He missed it - that's part of it."
Tennessee couldn't turn advantages in points in the paint (44-36) and rebounding (53-47) against a bigger team into a win, and Barnes bemoaned the stretch that cost the Vols long before the final seconds.
"It goes back to when we had the lead," he said. "We made so many silly plays. I didn't like our body language with the refereeing. The referee wasn't the problem on the game. We turned the ball over. One time we stood and threw our hands up in the air and let them inbound the ball over our head. We're not in a position that we can afford to ever beat ourselves.
"We'll look at this tape and there will be some things on it that will really sort of kind of make you sick, because there's things that we can control, and we didn't."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.